Phytochemicals and Weight Loss Nutrition
If you are planning to diet in order to lose fat, and stay healthy at the same time you need a good comprehension of weight loss nutrition. The latest buzzword is phytochemicals. These are substances (chemicals from plants) that provide the benefits we generally associate with diets high in fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses, and those which normally form part of healthful balanced diets. The most healthful and interesting phytochemicals found in plant foods are enzyme acting sulphur compound, hormone like compounds and antioxidants. They each have a role to play in healthfulness and weight loss nutrition and preventing illnesses.
Phytochemical research is a relatively new area in weight loss nutrition and new research is being conducted daily. Consequently they are likely to figure significantly in our diets of the future. However for the moment it is sufficient to say, “eat your fruits and vegetables, for they are really good for you.”
If you have never heard of phytochemicals and have no idea of their foundation in weight loss nutrition, then let me reassure you and give you some tips, because you have probably been eating them all your life, although unaware of it. You do not have to buy supplements as they are a natural resource in your food.
They include carotenoids, which are the natural green, yellow, red and orange pigments found in fruits and vegetables, Isothiocyanates, which are the smelly sulfur compounds, like you smell when you have been boiling cabbage, Actein found in black cohosh is a hormone like substance, Genistein and Daidzein are also hormone like and found many fruits and vegetables, Anthocyanins are the antioxidant pigments responsible for making blue berries, blue and finally the indigestible part of plant foods, dietary fiber.
These phytochemicals together with vitamins, form the part of weight loss nutrition, which slows down tissue degeneration, protects your heart, maintains your hormone balance, keeps your bones strong, lowers cholesterol, prevents cancer producing substances and keeps your cells healthful.
The problem with many of the prepackaged, weight loss nutrition plan, products on the market, is that although they contain protein and many vitamins necessary, they do not provide the potential healthful benefits of phytochemicals. This is one of the reasons government agencies are always advising that we should eat five helping of fruit and vegetables daily, plus several helping of grains.
