Top 10 Foods Your Body Needs

What do a guava, cabbage and a weed have in common? They're all foods you should be eating. Here's why you should add the following 10 fruits, vegetables and plants to your diet.

FRUITS

1.	Guava is a slightly pear-shaped tropical fruit known for its sweet, acidic flavor and yellow or pink color. It contains such cancer-fighting agents as lycopene, known for warding off prostate cancer. And with 688 mg of potassium and 9 grams of fiber, this fruit is a must for anyone's diet.

2.	Gogi berries resemble raisins, taste sweet and sour, and are red in color. Eating them can help protect the liver, improve sexual function and increase circulation. They also have the highest Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) rating (a method of measuring antioxidant levels in food) of any fruit, according to researchers at Tufts University.
3.	Dried plums, also known as prunes, are somewhat infamous for their high fiber content. However, don't forget that they also include high amounts of neochlorogenic and chlorogenic acids which fight the "superoxide anion radical," known to cause structural damage to cells, one of the primary causes of cancer.
4.	Pomegranate juice has been consumed for decades in the Middle East as a popular juice beverage; now it's becoming popular in the United States. Just 4 oz. a day provides 50 percent of your daily vitamin C needs.

VEGETABLES

5.	Cabbage is a leafy, green vegetable. Its benefits: a healthy supply of nutrients including sulforaphane, a chemical which increases your body's production of enzymes that combat cell-damaging free radicals and reduce the risk of cancer.
6.	Beets are a root known for their dark red coloring and are surprisingly sweet for a vegetable. It is one of the best sources of both folate and betaine, which help to lower your blood levels of homocysteine. That's good news because homocysteine can damage arteries and increase the risk of heart disease.
7.	Swiss chard is a slightly bitter and salty vegetable. It contains huge amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin, plant chemicals known as carotenoids that protect the retinas from age-related damage.

PLANTS

8.	Purslane is a broad-leaved weed. It features the highest amount of heart-healthy omega-3 fats of any edible plant and has 10 to 20 times more melatonin than any other fruit or vegetable.
9.	Cinnamon is a common spice most of us think of when we make cake or cookies – but don't overlook a pinch or two on your oatmeal or in your coffee. Cinnamon's health benefits include controlling your blood sugar and lowering triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Active ingredients include methylhydroxychalcone polymers, which increase your cells' ability to metabolize up to 20 times.
10.	Pumpkin seeds are too-frequently tossed away during the traditional October pumpkin carving. That's a mistake, because just 1 ounce contains 150 mg of magnesium. Pumpkin seeds are also high in zinc and phytosterols, shown to lower cholesterol and defend against cancer.

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Exercise Your Brain

We all know about the importance of proper nutrition and exercise to keep our muscles in good shape. But did you also know that giving the brain a workout is equally important?

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Southern California have determined that computer-based mental training programs appear to improve cognitive performance in older people by as much as 10 years. Another study from Harvard found that taking beta-carotene long-term can improve cognitive function.

So what can you do to keep your brain as fit as the rest of you? Here are a few tips:

	Move your body. A recent study from Columbia University in New York City found that people who exercised regularly for three months increased the blood flow to the hippocampus part of the brain, which is responsible for memory. This also can lead to the production of new brain cells. Sandra Aamodt, editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal on brain research, explains that increased blood flow to the brain can offset mini-strokes, which can cause cognitive decline.
	Eat your vegetables and fruits. Your mother was right all along! The Alzheimer's Association recommends a diet high in dark-colored vegetables (e.g., kale, spinach, beets and eggplant); colorful fruits (e.g., berries, raisins, prunes, oranges and red grapes) and fish such as salmon or trout high in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids to keep those neurons firing. James Joseph, director of the neuroscience lab at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, says, "We have found that the berry fruits improve neuronal communication."
	Challenge your brain. Games such as crossword puzzles, word jumbles or even sudoku (a numbers puzzle originating in Japan) keep those mental wheels turning. In tests of experienced crossword puzzlers of all ages, those in their 60s and 70s did the best, according to a recent article in U.S. News & World Report.
	Be social. Get involved with your community or participate in your favorite hobby with others. Researchers at Harvard found that those with at least five social ties were less likely to suffer cognitive decline than those with no social ties. Researchers at George Washington University found that elderly people who joined a choir stepped up their other activities during a 12-month period, while those who were not involved with the choir dropped out of other social activities.

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Take a Walk, Lower Your Risk of Stroke

Using data from a recent study of 61,000 adults at the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas, researchers found that merely being moderately fit – defined as walking briskly half an hour a day for five days – can lower the risk of having a stroke.

Participants took a treadmill test and answered health surveys. Based on these results, study subjects were divided into four fitness groups and tracked for 18 years to see how many of them suffered strokes over that time period. The overall results showed 692 strokes in men and 171 in women (only a quarter of the study participants were women).

Results showed that men in the fittest group had a 40 percent lower risk of stroke than the least fit men. The fittest women had a 43 percent reduction in their risk of stroke as compared to women in the least fit group. For moderate fitness levels, the risk reduction ranged from 15 percent to 30 percent for men and 23 percent to 57 percent in women. Even when taking into account other risk factors such as smoking, weight, high blood pressure, diabetes and family history, these reduced risks proved consistent.

So, if you don't have a treadmill, head outside to walk the dog, your kids or your spouse. Enjoy some quality time with your family and get your exercise in all at the same time. A brisk, 30 minute walk could prove to be one of the best health decisions you ever make.

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