3 ways vegetables help your health

You may have thought that seven servings of vegetables each day was enough. But research indicates that even a larger number of servings is advisable. Here are compelling reasons to eat more vegetables.

Vegetables are the perfect food for weight loss. Most vegetables – particularly leafy greens – are low in calories. As a result, they can be eaten in large quantities and are an excellent source of nutrients.Then there's the fibre in vegetables, which makes you feel full more quickly and which binds with fats on its way through the digestive tract.

Vegetable carbohydrates are mostly complex, meaning they provide great fuel, but in healthy, steady ways. Even starchy plant foods such as grains, legumes, sweet potatoes, corn and squashes have a place in a weight-loss program. While not especially low in calories, they are high in fibre and nutrients and can be very filling in small amounts.

For everyday function, your body needs proteins, fats and carbohydrates for fuel and cellular growth. Your body also needs vitamins, minerals, and other substances for the chemistry of life – the manufacturing of hormones, the creation of immune cells, the functioning of the brain and nervous system.

Your body also needs ingredients like calcium and magnesium for bones and teeth, and iron and potassium for blood.Vegetables are an outstanding source for all these nutrients. Plants are dense with the minerals, vitamins and important chemicals you need to function.

For untold centuries, many human cultures have used food as part of the healing process. But only in the past 20 years or so have scientists dived deeply into the science of phytochemicals and the healing power of vegetables, fruit and grains. Phytochemicals are natural chemicals in plants that are beneficial to human health.

Technically, vitamins and minerals in vegetables are phytochemicals, but the term is used for a whole group of ingredients with complicated names and very specific usages.

For example, broccoli, cabbage and other types of green vegetables are rich in chemicals called glucosinolates that research reveals can be used in the battle against cancers. Garlic and onions are rich in sulfur compounds such as allicin that also battle cancer and cholesterol. Peppers contain bioflavonoids, which help to neutralize free radicals in the bloodstream.

A single plant food can contain many hundreds of these disease-fighting nutrients. These nutrients give vegetables their brilliant colours, distinctive flavours and appetizing aromas. They protect the plants from insects, bacteria, viruses, UV light and other environmental threats. In the human body, their benefits are similarly broad. They help the body to dispose of potentially hazardous substances such as carcinogens and free radicals. They stimulate the body's immune cells and infection-fighting enzymes.

While an increasing number of these plant chemicals are being sold in supplement form, doctors maintain that the best thing to do is to eat a diversity of fresh produce, spanning a wide range of colours and sources.