Are you still with me on our journey over the rainbow? Have you been making sure to have a yellow fruit and/or vegetable every day? Great! This week, I’ll share some facts about yellow fruits and vegetables that will, hopefully, encourage you to continue to include them in your diet EVERY day!
Including a variety of yellow fruits and vegetables in our diets means we are getting the important vitamins A, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, as well as C. Yellow fruits and vegetables also contain calcium, fiber, iron, magnesium, manganese, sodium, and potassium. Eating a wide variety of whole fruits and vegetables also means we are getting carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in the perfect amounts Mother Nature intended.
It’s important to remember the synergistic effect all the components in whole plant foods have on our health. It’s good to know what specific nutrients do, but it is also important to know that those nutrients do not act in isolation. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. They work together to create a beautiful picture of health. Too many people are obsessed with either carbs, protein, and/or fat and take absolutely no thought for the many other health giving things in whole plant foods. I want to encourage you to think of all the life- giving components in whole plant foods as a T.E.A.M. – Together Everyone Achieves More!
In addition to vitamins and minerals we need for health, Mother Nature also included other nutrition bombs in fruits and vegetables that explode with goodness and healing whenever we eat them! Let’s hear it for bromelain and silica! These are the two nutrition bombs found in the yellow foods pineapples, peppers, and bananas. Let’s take a look at what they can do for us.
Bromelain is a mixture of enzymes found in pineapples that digest protein. Pineapples are the only natural source for bromelain. Studies have shown it can be used to treat many conditions. While research results were obtained by using bromelain supplements, and we are told we can’t obtain enough through dietary sources to consider it to have medicinal effects, I firmly believe in the symphony effect of whole foods. To reaffirm what I said earlier, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Studies have shown bromelain to be effective at reducing inflammation. This includes swelling from physical injuries, sinusitis, surgery, tendonitis, and muscle strains and sprains. Studies also showed bromelain was just as effective as drugs such as Motrin and Aleve for reducing the pain of osteoarthritis . More studies are needed, but it also looks promising to help rheumatoid arthritis as well. It was also shown to kill some viruses and bacteria! While more research is needed, preliminary research shows that bromelain also has anti-tumor properties. I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll go eat some pineapple!
Next, let’s look at the amazing trace mineral silica and all the things it can do for you. You can get silica naturally by eating yellow peppers and bananas among other things. Silica is important for the health of our bones, brains, skin, hair, and nails.
For the bones, silica helps increase bone mass density, assists in cartilage formation, and aids in calcium absorption. For the brain, silica may help prevent your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies show that Alzheimer’s patients have higher amounts of aluminum in their brains. Silica can help detoxify the aluminum in the body.
Silica helps give strength to hair and nails. A deficiency leads to dry, thin hair and weak, brittle nails. Sufficient amounts have been shown to improve the tensile strength and thickness of the hair and help in the treatment of brittle nail syndrome.
Last, but certainly not least, silica helps us to have better skin. While a myriad of companies are making millions of dollars per year promising to give us younger, healthier looking skin from the outside, silica can be our inside link to a more youthful, radiant countenance. Silica contributes to enzymatic activities necessary for normal collagen formation, and collagen plays a HUGE role in helping us maintain tight, youthful, wrinkle-free skin. Studies have also shown it to be effective in treating psoriasis and rosacea.
I continue to be amazed by, and ever grateful for, all the goodness that lies in whole plant foods! I am truly grateful to be blessed with this knowledge that can both prevent and reverse disease. Thank you so much for continuing to read these letters each week, and keep eating the rainbow EVERY SINGLE DAY! You have amazing things to accomplish, and you will be better able to do them in a healthy body powered by proper nutrition – it’s just over the rainbow!
CONTINUE MY “EAT THE RAINBOW” SERIES BY CLICKING HERE:
REFERENCES:
http://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/bromelain
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