We were all raised with the message of how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables, but that message is more important now than ever before. Americans are getting fatter and this can be connected to the foods that we eat. Not only is that bad for the waist line, but it is bad for your health. By leaving fruits and vegetables out of your meals you are setting yourself up for many diseases and health complications.
Fresh fruits and vegetables are whole foods. This means that they come to you in their natural form. They are not pulverized, stripped, chopped, added to, salted, or sauced. They are whole, natural, and healthy. Foods that you can buy pre-prepared, prepped, frozen, canned, or jarred are called prepared foods, but more often than not these foods are also fragmented foods, or foods filled with preservatives. Food does not naturally sit on a self for months and months. Food processors have to add chemicals and preservatives to these food to make them sit there waiting to be purchases. These chemical and preservatives are most often not naturally occurring substances. Many of them have been proven to cause illnesses like cancer. And yet, millions of people still eat these foods every day!
It is not just the vitamins and minerals that are being missing when fruits and vegetables are left out. Vitamins will give you part of what you are missing, but the real deal contains phytochemicals, fiber, and vitamins, and that combination cannot be reproduced. Only by eating fresh fruits and vegetables can you get this combination that fights diseases and keep you feeling vibrant, strong, and healthy.
Some medical professionals recommend eating 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, while other recommend having these foods represent up to 80 percent of your daily food intake. No matter which figure you go by it is important to cut out as many fragmented foods as possible. Try to keep your diet made up of mainly whole foods in order to see the maximum health benefits from your foods.
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