24 May 2008
What is the colour of your food?
We all know that colour gives life to everything but do you know that colour gives us a healthy long life.
More colourful diet make your life more colourful. Our food gets the colour from the fruits and vegetables that we include in our diet. Fruits and vegetables get their colour from the various pigments present in their tissues. Most of the pigments occur in plastids specialized bodies lying in the protoplasm of the cell. These pigments can be classified as fat-soluble and water soluble. One such fat-soluble pigment is carotenoids.
It is a phytochemical identified to have nutro chemical properties. It belongs to the class of terpenes. Carrots, tomatoes, parsley, orange and spinach are rich sources of carotenoids. Though carotenoids are of many types, Beta-carotene is considered more valuable.
Beta-carotene act as Vitamin A precursor and have prevetive action against many eye diseases including cataract. It can also prevent oxidation of Vitamin A and E. They are good source of anti oxidants. They lower the risk of many cancers (i.e.), lung cancer, cancer of the female reproductive system, gastro intestinal system and mouth, gum and trachea. It reduces the number of micronucleated buccal mucosal cell in tobacco chewers and also lowers the frequency of chromosomal breakages in betal nut chewers. Supplemented intake of Beta-carotene has been shown to reduce the incidence of angina.
So when you go to the vegetable shop, stock your baggage with carrots, tomatoes, oranges, green leafy vegetables, musk melon and apricots and you can be sure of all round anti-cancer package.