THE POTENT POWER OF PLANTS

For the power of fruits and vegetables we require, we add the power of oxygen to the mix to fight infections, repair damage and keep our minds working well. Calling on the power house of the heart, lungs and brain is required to keep our bodies fit and to even think. We also need oxygen for oxidation to extract energy from food and power other reactions needed when called upon to join the body’s army for protective power. Oxidation also oxidizes other substances like rust and burning fuels like gasoline.

A by-product of our normal oxygen-fuelled system is a group of unstable molecules called free radicals. They are also called oxidants because they can oxidize other substances. Free radicals have outside sources such as cigarette smoke and air pollution, UV light, X-rays, chemo-therapy, and toxins, natural and synthetic. Free radicals are tools needed as messengers in regulating immune responses, wound repair, cell growth and other functions. Being unstable, when free radicals encounter the good molecules to get the stability they crave, they battle the victim into a free radical, and oxidize the cells components. Our bodies have enlisted powerful weapons known as anti-oxidants that work together.

Leading the charge are anti-oxidant enzymes, proteins to destroy free radicals before they attack the good molecules. The enzymes they need come from outside sources and are considered as essential nutrients known as copper, selenium, manganese and zinc. The next line of defense is to break the chain of these free radicals and turn them back into law abiding citizens. They recruit vitamins from the food that is supplied; vitamin A to protect cell membranes, mostly supplied by fats and lipoproteins an umbrella term for all those garden foods supplied only by plants. They are abundant in fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and herbs, spices, teas, even moderate amounts of coffee. All these foods aren’t strictly necessary for survival but they help prevent cancer and other diseases like the effects of aging. Here is where we can get help from those wonderful fruits and vegetables that affect memory, mobility and so many other aspects of aging. Thankfully, our chefs here at Carrington supply two or three vegetables at the noon meal and a handy fruit bowl that includes citrus and yogurt at the Continental Breakfast. For example: the nourishing part of the white potato is right next to its skin coat, and one can request a baked potato instead (best with its skin still intact) or ask for a sweet potato or yams.