Written by
Tom Brady of the New York Times
Eating a
diet rich in fruits and vegetables may not, it turns out, help us enjoy a long
and healthy life.
Studies over
the last 15 years, The Times reported, reveal that much of our produce is low
in phytonutrients, the compounds that are supposed to reduce the risk of the
four diseases that plague modern life: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and
dementia. And the decline in the health benefits of our food is not a recent
development.
"Unwittingly,
we have been stripping the phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped
foraging for wild plants some 10,000 years ago," Jo Robinson wrote in The
Times.
Wild
dandelions have seven times the phytonutrients of spinach; a purple potato
native to Peru has 28 times more cancer-fighting anthocyanins than a common
potato; one type of apple has 100 times more phytonutrients than a Golden
Delicious.
When
Europeans first arrived in North America, they noted that the Indians had corn
of many hues. These days white sweet corn is ubiquitous, a variety higher in
sugar and lower in anthocyanins. We're also discovered that blue, red, and
black corn is rich in anthocyanins, which "have the potential to fight
cancer, calm inflammation, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, protect the
aging brain and reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular
disease," Ms. Robinson wrote.
Of course if
we don't have time to consume these superfoods, we can make sure we take our
vitamins. Some experts say people get enough vitamins from a routine diet,
while vitamin makers say supplements are needed.
"Most
people assume that, at the very least, excess vitamins can't do any harm,"
Paul A. Offit wrote in The Times. But, "scientists have known for years
that large quantities of supplemental vitamins can be quite harmful."
Studies have
shown that supplemental vitamins A, C, E and beta carotene, and a mineral,
selenium, caused higher death rates when taken to prevent intestinal cancer, Mr.
Offit reported.
But help may be available from unseen allies. Recent
research shows that the trillion or so bacteria living in our guts and on our
skin may fight off some chronic diseases of our time. Maria Gloria
Domingues-Bello, a Venezuelan-born microbiologist at New York University, went
to remote corners of the Amazon to collect samples from hunter-gatherers. “We
want to see how the human microbiota looks before antibiotics, before processed
food, before modern birth,” she told The Times.
Preliminary results indicate that a pristine microbiome
features much greater diversity, and this may play a role in Amer-indians’
markedly lower rates of allergies, asthma, atopic disease and chronic
conditions like Type 2 diabetes ad cardiovascular disease, Michael Pollan
reported in The Times.
The Western diet lacks fiber, and another problem is an
overemphasis on hygiene, some scientists believe.
“There’s a case for dirtying up your diet,” the Stanford
microbiologist Justin Sonnenburg told Mr. Pollan. Yet people should probably
wash their produce because many times they are rinsing off pesticide residues.
“Increased exposure to environmental microbes likely
decreases chance of many Western diseases, but increases pathogen exposure.
Certainly the costs go up as scary antibiotic-resistant bacteria become more
prevalent,” Mr. Sonnenburg said in an email.
Mr. Pollan urges you to wash your hands in situations when
pathogens or toxic chemicals are likely present, but maybe not after petting
your dog.
Mr. Sonnenburg advises: “In terms of food, I think eating
fermented foods is the answer—as opposed to not washing food, unless it is from
your garden.”
