THE FRUITS

              
The Real Medicine
             

          In as much as how antioxidants are richly present in almost all plant foods, fruit has always been preventive medicine throughout history and today. More than 900 phytochemicals have been discovered in fruits, vegetables and plant derivatives, such as teas. Increasingly, scientists are seeing both correlative and causative relationships between fruit consumption and positive health outcomes. A good example are the native Amazonians, whose diets are largely plant-based. They experience almost no cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or cancer--a correlation that researchers are studying. Amazon people traditionally used acai fruit as medicine for gastrointestinal problems, but some believe its medicinal value goes far beyond that.

             Scientists at the Western Human Nutrition Research Center, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture in Davis, California, are studying the health effects of common fruits, including grapes and strawberries. They have thus far established that phytochemicals from each of these can kill acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells in a laboratory setting. The same research team has found that mice with Type 1 diabetes halted the progression of their disease by eating a small amount of a freeze-dried powder derived from table grapes.

               The widely cited and respected Andrew Weil, M.D., is a strong proponent of eating fruits and vegetables as a means to reduce the degenerative effects and diseases of aging. The Harvard-trained Weil advocates the consumption of fruits and vegetables from a broad color spectrum, such as berries, tomatoes and orange and yellow fruits, as well as plain dark chocolate (derived from the cacao fruit) for their antioxidants and fiber. He also believes fruit can be preventive medicine by reducing environmental toxicity. For example, the pectin in apples and pears remove metals that may be ingested through other foods, such as mercury in certain fish.