Fruits and Vegetables

It's difficult to drink the recommended 8 glasses of water per day. Fruits and vegetables make it easier. Water rich fruits and vegetables like apples, citrus fruits, grapes, and tomatoes can help you reach your daily dose of water.

Eating fruits and vegetables reduces blood pressure, and thus decreases your risk of heart disease. Fiber, potassium, magnesium and calcium all reduce blood pressure, and are all found in fruits and vegetables.

Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables reduces your risk of cancer. Folate, a vitamin found in citrus fruits, citrus juices and green leafy vegetables, is associated with the prevention of colon, rectal, cervical, lung, stomach and esophageal cancers.

Folate, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12 reduce your risk of heart disease, and may reduce your risk for colon cancer, Alzheimer's disease, miscarriages, birth defects, osteoporosis, strokes and aging of the eyes. Increasing your intake of folate decreases the homocysteine levels in your blood. High homocysteine levels are associated with heart disease, and suspected to increase your risk of all the other ailments we listed above.

Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables provides your digestive tract with fiber. Fiber reduces constipation, diverticulosis, and your risk for cancer of the digestive tract and diabetes.

Fruits and vegetables are needed to develop strong bones. Vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, and magnesium are necessary for bone regeneration and are all found in fruits and veggies.

Multivitamin pills are no substitute for fruits and veggies. Vitamins and minerals can't help you unless they are efficiently absorbed, and your body has a good supply of the molecules with which they interact. This is why obtaining vitamins and minerals by eating vegetables and a well rounded diet is often much more beneficial than taking a multivitamin pill. Nutrients that are necessary for the vitamins and minerals to function in the body may be found in the food, but not in the multivitamin.