Your Grandma Said It Best...Eat Your Veggies!

That’s the main message behind an often overlooked but critical recommendation within the latest USDA Dietary Guidelines report: The ideal “vegetable schedule”. This new research reveals that eating about 14 cups of vegetables per week, from a wide range of veggie groups, raises blood levels of many protective antioxidants. In addition to their well-documented ability to fight and reduce the risk of disease, antioxidants may help preserve your long-term memory and learning capabilities, even as you get older. Numerous studies also link a higher veggie intake to a reduced risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. That’s why the strongest recommendation from the USDA’s report is a greater consumption of a wide variety of vegetables- advice that’s mirrored by every major health organization, including the American Heart Association, American Institute for Cancer Research, and American Diabetes Association. Prevention, November 2008