Vegetables: Nutritional Properties

Even before their vitamin and micronutrient properties were fully understood, vegetables were considered healthful. Today, however, Americans are more likely to look to vegetables for their antioxidant properties.

In addition to their role as the precursors of important vitamins, the chemical compounds found in plants, called phytonutrients, appear to repair and prevent cellular damage. When we breathe, a small number of oxygen molecules are converted in our bodies to free radicals, unstable oxygen atoms that, in seeking their missing electrons, attack healthy cells. Although the impact of free radicals (estimated at ten thousand hits a day) is normally held in check by defenses within our bodies, exposure to air pollution, chemicals, or foods high in fat and sugar can overwhelm these defenses. The resulting damage is known as oxidation. Free-radical damage can greatly diminish the body’s ability to combat aging and disease.