Often people focus on natural health using vitamins and minerals as a base of good health. However there are thousands of chemicals throughout the plant kingdom that also have vital roles in our health – these are called “phytochemicals.” When recommendations are given to eat more fruits and vegetables, many people turn a deaf ear, because they don’t know the true benefits. Below is a powerful example of why the recommendation of fruits and vegetable consumption may be so powerful.
Polyphenols are one of the classes of phytochemicals that are concentrated in the skin of fruits and vegetables. Recently, researchers from Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Tennessee found that consuming fruit and vegetable juice three or more times per week correlated with a 76% reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease when compared to those having close to no juice. Presumably, researchers concluded that it was the polyphenols in the juices that were so important in healing the brain from potential oxidative stress that would have otherwise led to the Alzheimer’s Disease. See the study in the American Journal of Medicine here.
Many of the people reading my blogs/newsletters have chronic disease, and have taken the recommendation from me or from others to avoid sugar, even when coming from fresh fruit, or fruit juice. I still hold to this recommendation because sugar has been proven so detrimental in it’s effect on bacterial and pathogen proliferation (see my Lyme Webinar for the studies). However, you can see that it is important for long term brain health to consume these phytochemicals. When symptoms from chronic disease have improved greatly, it is okay to reintroduce some fruit or fruit juice if you monitor your symptoms. Another way to obtain fruit polyphenols in the form of juice without the sugar is various powder products on the market like Madre Labs Eureka Berries, or Macrolife Miracle Reds, or Jarrow Organic Berry High.
Of course raw is a better source for fruits and vegetables, but certainly any source is better than no source, and if you are holding to the low/no sugar recommendation than these powders are excellent substitutes. Even the study I quoted made no mention as to what type of fruit or vegetable juice people consumed. They just reported whether or not the juice was consumed and how much. It might have been powdered or from concentrate or fresh, or anything. The result of 76% lower Alzheimer’s risk was still the same.
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