Vitamins, minerals, fiber, fats, carbs, and proteins get all the glamour. Everyone is always talking about fat this, carb that, and vitamin whatever. But what about all the other substances in food and plants? I bet you’ve never thought about those.
Phytonutrients simply means “plant nutrients” – everything in plants that have health benefits that aren’t any of those things I already mentioned. You’d be surprised to know that they outnumber traditional nutrients by about 10,000 to 1.
The way food smells, tastes, and looks comes down to its phytonutrients. That purple colour of the eggplant? Yep, that’s a phytonutrient. The intense smell that makes you cry when you cut onions? Phytonutrient. The bitterness of some wines? Well, you get the picture.
Basically, your experience of food is chalked up to these molecules, not vitamins or macronutrients like proteins.
And it’s a wonder we’ve never paid them much attention!
Phytonutrients are broken down into many different categories such as flavanoids, tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, glycosides, and sulfur compounds. Those categories are then broken down to hundreds of other categories of substances.
Why is this important? Because phytonutrients are just that…. nutrients. They are really important for your health, as each one of them has specific properties that can benefit your body in some way. These include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, cancer preventative, and immunosupportive properties.
One phytonutrient you may be familiar with is a carotanoid called beta-carotene. It’s what gives carrots and sweet potatoes their orange colour and they say it’s good for seeing in the dark. (It’s also good for the skin!)
Anyway, this is just one reason why it’s a good idea to eat a variety of foods and not just get stuck on the same one or two fruits and vegetables, as it can be easy to do.
You know how they say to ‘eat the rainbow’ on your plate? It’s referring to eating many different colours of plants at your meal so that you’re getting a well rounded hit of all those different phytos!
Another good reason to rotate foods is that some phytonutrients can become slightly toxic if they are built up in your body over time. For example, this happens with phytonutrients in leafy greens called alkaloids. So it’s best to change which greens you are using in your green smoothie every few days or each week to ensure you are getting the most out of them!
Do you eat the rainbow?
PS. I’m taking the weekend off to go to my favourite summer festival (the one I mentioned in my life story) in order to dance my arse off and enjoy life – so if I’m M.I.A on answering your questions and comments for a few days, that is why. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!
We do seem to forget about these! This is why its important to simply eat whole, real foods and to eat a variety.
There’s so much more food to besides what’s on the “surface.” There’s still a whole lot we don’t know about what’s in our food, not even talking about what it does to us health-wise. You always hear of Omega-3s and Omega-6s, but there’s also Omega-7s, which are also quite unique.
Then there’s the catechins in chocolate. The xenoestrogens/phytoestrogens in soy. Etc. etc.
Of course we eat the rainbow! Just grab some Skittles!!! XD
Somewhat off topic, but I’m not sure where else I can ask you this!
What do you use to wash your dreads? I’m currently using baking soda for my hair but am going to go through the dreading process in a few days and would like to know what fellow dreadful people use.
Might you have any other advice with dreads?
Also, love your blog. It has been terribly helpful to me so thank you!
Thanks Michelle!
I think baking soda should be okay for dreads. I used to use a dread shampoo that just doesn’t leave any residue (like perfumes etc that get stuck in the dread and can then cause smelly buildup), but it wasn’t very natural… now I hardly ever wash them because it’s not needed – washing them is a pain because they take forever to dry, but my hair isn’t oily, greasy, smelly, dandruffy, or itchy… so I don’t see much of a point. But washing them when they are new is actually helpful because it helps them to tighten and dread up because it creates friction. I’d actually recommend Dr. Bronner’s all purpose soap to wash them. That’s what I use now when I do get around to washing mine. My other advice: Don’t wax them or worry about maintenancing them much in the beginning. People worry about their dreads too much and put nasty wax in them, and root rub them and this and that….. but it’s not needed. It dreads up on its own without fiddling with them, you just have to be patient! 🙂
What are some other good greens to use in green smoothies other than spinach and lettus?
Kale, chard, collards… these taste stronger than spinach though so you need to get used to the more green taste
Are liquid supplements on the market containg sea weeds toxic to our bodies?