Originally published May 10 2005
People need more dark green vegetables, according to the new dietary standards
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
According to the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, people should eat three cups of dark green vegetables every week in order to maintain good health. However, most Americans are not eating nearly enough dark green vegetables and need to boost their intake by 200 to 300 percent. Dark green vegetables include Romaine lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens and turnip greens. These vegetables are rich sources for anti-oxidants, which are important cancer-fighting nutrients. Dark green vegetables are a necessary source of folate, which is necessary for maintaining the heart, preventing cancer and preventing some birth defects.
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By Karen Collins, MS, RD, CDN - The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2005, issue a major challenge regarding vegetables.
American Institute for Cancer Research - infoZine - The latest dietary recommendations suggest that most adults should eat three cups of dark green vegetables a week.
Not only do we seldom eat them, however, many of us walk into grocery stores and never notice, or even recognize, many of the dark green vegetables there.
Next time you're in a grocery store, go on a "green vegetable" hunt, looking for these nutritious, delicious treasures.
Romaine lettuce - and even darker green leafy vegetables like spinach, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, mustard greens and turnip greens - contain beta-carotene as well as the carotenoid cousins called lutein and zeaxanthin.
These same dark greens can also supply a significant amount of folate.
Folate is a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects.
Even after considering the presence of other cancer-fighting nutrients, several large studies show that the risk of colon polyps, which are the source of most colon cancers, is 30 to 40 percent lower in people with a high folate intake compared to those with diets low in folate.
Check your grocery store for pamphlets with more ideas for preparing this kind of produce, or look at cookbooks.
Or get fresh ideas at your desk: Go to the website of the American Institute for Cancer Research (www.aicr.org) and click on Recipe Corner.
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