The Youth Truth: Veggies Pare Off Years

Many fruits and vegetables contain vitamins and other natural substances that can help neutralize free radicals, molecular fragments that can harm body cells. And blocking free radicals is crucial in protecting your body from degenerative diseases and premature aging.

In other words, all those fruits and vegetables that help you maintain your good health while you’re fighting fat can also help you look and feel younger.

But what exactly are free radicals, and how do certain nutrients stand in the way of their insidious attacks?

According to the widely accepted “free radical theory,” unstable, highly reactive pieces of molecules darting among our cells react easily with oxygen, creating oxidation. And oxidation is what erodes things, causing metal to rust and fruit to rot. The free radicals in cell set off chain reactions, creating a destructive effect that biochemist call a cascade. The predominant damage is to DNA, the genetic material inside the nucleus of the cell. When DNA gets damaged, the aftereffects can lead to cancer, heart disease and premature aging.

When you get fresh fruits and vegetables on your diet, you’re absorbing some substances called antioxidants. These are free radical quenchers that can short-circuit the oxidation process. These substance interfere with the madcap destruction by free radicals. The antioxidants in fresh produce are beta-carotene which is found in brightly colored and dark green fresh vegetables and vitamin C.

Other substances that help restrain free radicals are important B vitamins (B1,B6 and pantothenic acid), cysteine (an amino acid), zinc, selenium, catechols and indoles – protective substances found in the potatoes and bananas. Add the radical-control benefits you get from chlorophyll, which is found in the most green vegetables, and it’s clear that fresh fruits and vegetables turn into all around cell protectors.