Miracles of phytochemicals

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• By Nivedita Kannan

In today's world, almost everyone is aware of the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle involves eating right, making sure one is fit and even checking in on one’s mental health. When it comes to eating right, most of us would suggest eating earthly foods, like vegetables, fruits, pulses etc. Brightly coloured foods contain phytochemicals (made of phytomolecules) that are mainly known to prevent cancer. Phytochemicals are plant-derived chemicals that are found in all the edible parts of a plant, especially the skin or peel. They are found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, seeds, and nuts. Phytochemicals give plants their colour, flavour and aroma. These compounds give beetroots their vibrant colour, chillies their searing sting and oranges their sour tang. The most studied, and well-known phytochemicals are probably carotenoids, flavonoids, lycopene, terpenes, lutein, quercetin, isothiocyanates, resveratrol and anthocyanins. There are a number of uses and advantages of introducing phytochemicals into one’s diet, some of which include, aiding in the functioning of the phytochemicals, protecting DNA from damage, reducing inflammation and regulating hormones. Consuming phytochemicals can help prevent the effects of carcinogens, stop carcinogens from attacking healthy cells and even wipe out any cancer-like changes. According to a few scientists, the risk of cancer can be reduced by 40% by eating foods that are rich in phytochemicals. This cancer-fighting ability is said to have been the result of a cross-kingdom regulation between plants and mammals and this leads to novel research that could treat cancer.

Keywords: Phytochemicals, Coloured foods, Cancer preventing, Carcinogens

Image source:
Colours of Health by Alex Proimos, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colours_of_Health_(4877352097).jpg

Citation:
Nivedita Kannan. Miracles of phytochemicals. The Torch. 2022. 3 (20).
Available from: https://www.styvalley.com/pub/magazines/torch/read/miracles-of-phytochemicals/.

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