The Top 100 Foods For Your Health

From Almonds to Yogurt, Your Edible Allies

Good news: You can easily get cheap, good-tasting medicine that helps ward off cancer, heart disease, and stroke—without even going to the pharmacy. These disease-preventing substances are in the everyday, garden-variety foods available in any grocery store.

The secret lies in eating a wide variety of foods that contain an assortment of disease-fighting substances. That way, you create a protective mosaic of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other substances that help you stay disease free. So be sure you get the five-plus servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the National Cancer Institute and leading nutritionists.

The following 100 foods stand out as top-notch disease fighters, easily found in the supermarket.

A note about serving sizes: The standard serving size for cooked vegetables or chopped raw vegetables is ½ cup and, for raw leafy vegetables, the serving size is 1 cup. For fruit a serving is one medium apple, banana, or orange or ½ cup of chopped, cooked, or canned fruit. A serving of cooked cereal, rice, pasta, or cooked dried beans is ½ cup.

A note about the Daily Value: The Daily Value is the amount of a nutrient that scientists figure you need each day if you eat a 2,000-calorie diet. If you eat more or fewer calories, your Daily Value will be higher or lower accordingly.

A note about vitamin A: Actual vitamin A is found in animals, not plants. A source of vitamin A in our bodies, however, is beta-carotene, which is found in plants. Throughout this chapter you will note that certain vegetables or fruits are a good source of vitamin A because, through a simple process, the body converts beta-carotene into a usable form of vitamin A.

Almonds

Not what you would expect to head up a list of healthy foods—almonds weigh in like sumo wrestlers in calories and fat. Fortunately, most of the fat is monounsaturated, the kind that may actually reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Cancer. A serving of almonds (the amount that fits in your hand, about an ounce, or 24 whole kernels) gives you 13.5 percent of the Daily Value for copper.

Almonds deliver copper to power up your immune system, which needs more of a boost as you get older. Plus, they provide some fiber (1.9 milligrams) and calcium to help lower your risk of colon cancer.

Heart disease and stroke. In one study, people eating 3½ ounces of almonds a day reduced cholesterol levels by 20 points. Almonds are a good source of riboflavin, which has been associated with lower heart disease rates. In addition, a handful of almonds is high in magnesium—it provides 21 percent of the Daily Value, which may help prevent blood clots and lower blood pressure.

Apples

Whole, sliced, juiced, cooked, or sauced, apples deliver protection from disease.

Cancer. Take a bite and take in some glutathione (well, it does sound as if you're talking with your mouth full when you try to say it). This tongue twister protects your mouth because it cuts the risk of oral and throat cancer by up to 50 percent in comparison to the risk in people who don't eat apples. It also makes your immune system work as though it belongs to someone much younger. The problem is that most people over 60 have blood levels of glutathione 17 percent lower than people under 40. This antioxidant is available only from raw vegetables and fruits, so eat your apples raw. You'll have to think of another excuse to eat apple pie. Apples are a great source of another mouth-saver—vitamin C, which helps guard your mouth against cancer.

Apples also provide you with flavonoids, antioxidants that help stop cancer's start-up process. A medium-size apple, with peel, gives you a little more than 2.5 grams of total fiber, protection against both cancer and heart disease.

Heart disease and stroke. When researchers in the Netherlands studied 805 men ages 65 to 84, they found that the apple eaters had a 32 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, in part because of flavonoids concentrated in the apple peel.

Researchers think that the vitamin C in apples also performs such feats as lowering your blood pressure, which could help protect your arteries and heart. Vitamin C also helps prevent oxidation of blood cholesterol and, therefore, slows clogging of the arteries. Apples are high in flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties. One small apple with skin gives you 1 gram of soluble fiber, which can aid heart health.

Apricots

The taste is tart, but the benefits are sweet. This tiny low-fat, low-cal, zero-cholesterol fruit packs a lot of protection in the form of beta-carotene, dietary fiber, and vitamin C. And remember that apricots in the dried form contain even greater concentrations of their beneficial nutrients.

Cancer. A serving of three fresh apricots boosts your body's defenses as a source of more than half of the Daily Value of vitamin A. People who eat a lot of vitamin A/beta-carotene have lower rates of breast, cervical, and uterine cancer. They may also get protection against cancer of the esophagus, stomach, colon, and mouth. Vitamin A also helps keep invaders out by strengthening the mucous membranes that line the digestive, respiratory, reproductive, and urinary tracts.

The vitamin C helps lower your risk of cancer of many vital organs. More than 1 gram of insoluble fiber is in a ½-cup serving of canned apricots, and there are 5 grams of total fiber in ¼ cup of dried apricots, which helps fend off colon and breast cancer.

Heart disease and stroke. Proof that good things come in small packages, seven dried apricot halves give you 1.1 grams of soluble fiber to help bring down high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Apricots provide potassium, which helps lower your high blood pressure. One serving of three fresh apricots is the source for more than half the Daily Value of vitamin A, which may protect you from the harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol buildup that can lead to hardening of the arteries. Stroke victims in Belgium fared better when their diets included lots of sources of vitamin A.

Artichokes

Perhaps the ancient Romans were thinking about taste, not disease protection. Regardless, they paid more for artichokes than any other garden vegetable.

Cancer. A ½-cup serving of artichoke hearts gives you 4.5 grams of total dietary fiber for protection against colon cancer. Plus, you get 10 percent of your Daily Value of copper to boost your immune system. And 14 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin C helps protect you against a variety of cancers.

Heart disease and stroke. One medium cooked artichoke gives you 2.2 grams of soluble fiber for heart health. Vitamin C also fights the hazardous LDL cholesterol and other fats in the blood by keeping them from latching onto artery walls where they can do their dirty work.

A serving provides almost 11 percent of the Daily Value for folate (the natural form of the supplement folic acid), which helps prevent rises in homocysteine levels. Elevated homocysteine may increase the risk of heart disease. Researchers estimate that if people took in more of the B vitamin folate, between 13,500 and 50,000 deaths from coronary artery disease could be prevented every year. A ½-cup serving of artichoke hearts provides you with more than 12 percent of your Daily Value of magnesium, which may prevent the blood clotting that increases your risk of a heart attack or stroke. It also helps lower blood pressure.

Asparagus

It's a stand-up kind of vegetable. Next time you see a bunch of asparagus upright in a pan of water in the grocery store, think about how these low-cal, cholesterol-free little green spears stand up to disease.

Cancer. According to research, asparagus could actually help block tumor development. Obviously, you wouldn't want to go on an all-asparagus diet, but these laboratory findings make it clear that your body will benefit from a regular helping of these great defenders. In the laboratory, compounds in asparagus keep cells from mutating and keep tumors from forming.

Weighing in with 1.4 grams of insoluble fiber, a single serving of cooked fresh asparagus (about six spears) beefs up your defenses against colon cancer. Asparagus also provides vitamin C to protect you from a variety of cancers and copper to help strengthen your immune system.

Asparagus is a very good source of an antioxidant called glutathione, which has been found in animal studies to inhibit tumor growth. Asparagus gives you almost 33 percent of a day's requirement for folate, which keeps your cells healthy. Studies show that people who eat a diet rich in folate have lower levels of cancer of the cervix, colon, and rectum, and folate may help prevent cancer of the esophagus.

Heart disease and stroke. The ingredient list for asparagus reads like a who's who of heart protection: It's a source for nearly 10 percent of your Daily Value of vitamin A, which helps prevent buildup of the harmful LDL cholesterol in your arteries. At the same time, people with high amounts of beta-carotene have higher levels of the protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol than people with low amounts of beta-carotene.

As you age, it becomes harder for your body to absorb the B vitamins, so you have to take in more than you used to. B vitamins are plentiful in asparagus: folate and vitamin B₆ protect your heart, partly by lowering levels of the harmful amino acid homocysteine. Homocysteine is associated with high risk of heart attack and stroke. Riboflavin boosts the other B vitamins.

The soluble fiber in asparagus lowers the levels of LDL cholesterol and fats in your blood.

Avocados

Avocados contain a lot of protective nutrients, but they're also high in fat. One avocado leaves you with almost 31 grams of fat. And that's a bigger problem now that you're older and trying to slow the buildup of the body fat that leaves you more at risk for heart disease, some cancers, and excessive weight. But there's a silver lining: About two-thirds of the fat is monounsaturated, which may actually lower cholesterol levels. Plus, you can use mashed avocados or guacamole as a healthy mayonnaise substitute.

Cancer. Heading up the protective roster are 5.3 grams of insoluble fiber—a lot of protection from colon cancer. You get as much insoluble fiber from one avocado as you do from 5 tablespoons of toasted wheat germ.

A standard serving, half of an avocado, gives you 14 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin B₆. If you're low on vitamin B₆, your immune system gets sluggish—something you can't afford to have happen as you get older. But studies show that increasing your intake of vitamin B₆ will reverse that slump. You also get 14 percent of the Daily Value of copper, important to help shift your immune system into high gear. Beta-carotene in avocados helps disable cancer-causing agents before they strike. Avocados also provide vitamin C to guard against a variety of cancers and glutathione to help strengthen your immune system.

A serving of avocado provides more than 15 percent of the Daily Value of folate. Researchers think that this nutrient protects healthy cells from cancerous invasion. High levels of folate are also linked to low rates of cancer of the cervix, colon, rectum, lung, and possibly of the esophagus. In the laboratory, substances in avocados even keep tumors from getting started.

Heart disease and stroke. In one study people who ate ½ to 1½ avocados each day reduced cholesterol levels from an average of 236 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) of blood to 217. Even better, the levels of the beneficial HDL cholesterol, which lowers your risk of heart attack, didn't go down.

Researchers note that certain B vitamins can reduce heart disease risks by 10 to 25 percent. And avocados are loaded with B vitamins, including folate and vitamin B₆. Studies show that folate and vitamin B₆ may help keep the levels of homocysteine low, which means lower risk of heart disease. Homocysteine tends to accumulate in the blood of people who eat meat, and it may harm artery walls. Half an avocado gives you more than 9 percent of the Daily Value for magnesium, which also bolsters heart health.

Avocados are rich in soluble fiber, which helps control cholesterol. Plus, avocados contain potassium, which helps to lower blood pressure and reduces your risk of stroke.

Bananas

Voted America's favorite fruit, bananas are almost fat-free.

Cancer. The B vitamins—one banana has 33 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin B₆—help strengthen your immune system to fight off cancer-causing interlopers.

Scientists think that a healthy helping of other substances in bananas—vitamin C and the powerful antioxidant glutathione—can help cut your risk of cancer of the mouth and strengthen your immune system. When glutathione was added to the white blood cells of both older and younger people, it increased their infection-fighting ability. The benefit was especially strong in the white blood cells from the older people. The 1.4 grams of insoluble fiber, found in one banana, helps reduce your risk of colon cancer. In the laboratory, substances in bananas keep tumors from developing.

Heart disease and stroke. In a study of 859 men and women, those who ate just one potassium-rich fruit, such as bananas, per day had a 40 percent lower risk of stroke.

folate, a B vitamin that protects against cancer, also safeguards your heart by lowering levels of the harmful amino acid homocysteine, a risk factor in heart disease and heart attack. Vitamin C increases beneficial HDL cholesterol while it reduces harmful LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. You get 17 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin C from one banana.

Barley

Barley has been a staple of good health from time immemorial, even getting a "thumbs-up" in the Bible, which describes the good land as one of "wheat and barley." With that kind of endorsement, what are you waiting for?

Cancer. One serving of barley (½ cup cooked) gives you almost 2 grams of insoluble fiber to fight cancer.

Heart disease and stroke. A ½-cup serving of cooked barley gives you 1.2 grams of soluble fiber, which is great news for your heart.

Beans

The butt of many jokes, beans are superheroes of disease protection. Take your pick: black, garbanzo, navy, pink, pinto, kidney, white, or yellow. You can't beat them.

Cancer. Research shows that women who eat a diet rich in beans have lower rates of breast cancer, thanks to substances in beans that block estrogen. Natural chemicals in green and wax beans, and even in the juice from beans, keep cells from mutating. They also destroy enzymes that give cancer its start.

Beans boost your immune system. One-half cup of canned garbanzo beans (chick-peas), for instance, gives you 10 percent of your Daily Value of copper and 8.4 percent of your Daily Value of zinc. You get protection from colon cancer with almost 4 grams of insoluble fiber in ½ cup of cooked beans.

Heart disease and stroke. A high-bean diet cuts the risk of heart disease because it lowers cholesterol levels. Even bean sprouts help your heart. In one study people with very high cholesterol levels ate 1½ cups of cooked beans daily for three weeks and made no other dietary changes. Their cholesterol levels fell by an average of 60 points.

One-half cup of cooked garbanzo beans gives you 1.3 grams of soluble fiber, the heart-protecting stuff. And 35 percent of the Daily Value of folate further cuts your risk of heart disease and stroke. Plus, you get magnesium and potassium. These nutrients help prevent blood clots and reduce high blood pressure.

Beets

On the surface, beets don't look all that remarkable. But research reveals that beets are rich in the protective plant compounds known as phytochemicals.

Cancer. Sure, beets have an impressive lineup of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Just ½ cup canned beets gives you a very beneficial 1.5 grams of insoluble fiber and 6.4 percent of the Daily Value for folate to protect your cells and DNA coding.

But that isn't what has been impressing lab researchers. What's in the beet? At least 11 (and probably more) phytochemicals that fight cancer, including genistein, a substance that keeps estrogen from linking up with cancer cells to start tumor construction. It also keeps blood vessels from getting supplies to tumors. But beets have even more cancer-fighting properties that researchers have yet to explain.

Heart disease and stroke. One serving (½ cup) gives you more than 0.5 gram of the soluble fiber that helps lower your cholesterol levels and keeps plaque in the arteries from getting out of hand. Plus, you get 6.4 percent of your daily needs for the ever-important folate, lowering your risk of heart disease.

Don't forget the green stalk and leaves that top the beet itself. One-half cup of the cooked greens (especially when they're young) will give you 2.2 milligrams of beta-carotene, 2 grams of dietary fiber, plus some calcium, to lower mild blood pressure and cholesterol, magnesium to ease heart arrhythmia, and vitamin C to lower blood pressure and prevent oxidation of blood cholesterol. What's more, that same serving of beet greens provides 9 percent of the Daily Value of copper—a boon to your immune system.

Blackberries and Blueberries

Black or blue, you can't go wrong. Ever notice that when blueberries are exposed to acid (in lemon juice or yogurt, for example), they turn red? Exposed to baking soda, they turn a little green. But fear not—the change in color won't affect the change in protection.

Cancer. Blackberries pack more fiber than any other summer fruit (3.6 grams in ½ cup). Blueberries and blackberries contain important cancer fighters, including the phytochemicals catechins, flavonoids, and phenolic acids. Blackberries also contain ellagic acid, which neutralizes three different cancer-causing agents. Blackberries are high in vitamin C, which helps reduce your risk of cancers of the breast, cervix, esophagus, lung, mouth, pancreas, rectum, and stomach.

Heart disease and stroke. One-half cup of blackberries gives you more than 25 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin C. (Blueberries contain a little less vitamin C.) The vitamin C in these berries helps keep your HDL cholesterol levels high, which lowers the risk of your arteries becoming plagued by plaque.

Breads and Cereals

The name of the game is whole grain. Get out your reading glasses and check the fine print on packages. Look for the words "whole wheat" as the first ingredient on your bread wrapper—that means the bread contains whole-wheat flour.

Other good ingredients to look for are things like oat bran, soy flour, seeds, nuts, or whole grain. About 22 nutrients are diminished due to processing. And manufacturers only put a few nutrients back in. For example, enriched flour has had niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, and iron added to it.

Cancer. Two studies have found that something in oats keeps cells from mutating, but they haven't yet identified the compounds that provide the protection.

The consumption of breads and cereals made from whole grains may help lower the risk of colon cancer. Insoluble fiber speeds up the time it takes food to travel through the intestinal tract. So potential cancer-causing substances may be moved out of the body more quickly. Or, it could be that insoluble fiber lowers colon cancer risk because the fermentation of the fibers in the colon lowers the pH levels. Lower pH in the colon has been associated with lower colon cancer risk.

Heart disease and stroke. One slice of whole-wheat bread contains about 2 grams of dietary fiber. Fiber lowers cholesterol levels partly because it slows the absorption of cholesterol. Oats, rye, and barley are good sources of soluble fiber.

While there's little calcium in breads, yeast makes it easy for your body to take full advantage of what's there, according to a study at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Some bread and cereal products are fortified with vitamins and minerals for added protection against disease. Look for cereals fortified with folic acid, the supplemental form of folate, as well.

Broccoli

This is the workhorse of the food world. A serving (½ cup) of chopped raw broccoli contains only 12 calories and just a tiny bit of fat. Cooking destroys a few nutrients, but broccoli is worth its weight in gold in just about any form.

Cancer. One serving (½ cup) of cooked broccoli gives you 97 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin C, an effective fighter against cancer of the breast, cervix, esophagus, lung, mouth, pancreas, rectum, and stomach.

You also get a sizable portion of folate to help keep your cells healthy and able to fight off cancerous agents. Researchers have found that folate plays an important role in cell division. It also helps keep the genetic coding in DNA intact. People whose diets are rich in folate have lower rates of cervical, colon, rectal, lung, and possibly esophageal cancer.

Cancer-fighting substances in broccoli also include such tongue twisters as flavonoids, isothiocyanates, sulphoraphane, indoles, carotenoids, dithiolthiones, glutathione (in uncooked broccoli), monoterpenes, plant sterols, phenolic acids, glucobrassicin. Whew! In fact, researchers have cataloged—and they're not done yet—more than 30 substances in broccoli that seem to have cancer-fighting abilities.

Heart disease and stroke. A lot of the cancer-fighting substances also help your heart. Vitamin C can prevent the LDL particles in blood from becoming oxidized, which helps lessen the risks for heart disease. A 13-year study of men with high cholesterol levels revealed that the higher their carotenoid levels were, the lower their risk were for heart disease and strokes. Flavonoids lower your risk of heart disease and heart attack. Carotenoids shoot down harmful LDL cholesterol.

Cooked broccoli gives you 1.2 grams of heart-saving soluble fiber, which lowers LDL cholesterol levels and helps control blood sugar.

Broccoli is a source for a high amount of vitamin A, which may help decrease your risk of heart disease. Unlike some foods, broccoli contributes calcium that your body can use easily, which is important because calcium helps reduce mild high blood pressure and reduce harmful LDL cholesterol. The higher your LDL levels, the bigger your risk of heart disease.

Brussels Sprouts

A close relative of broccoli, brussels sprouts deliver many of the same low-fat, low-cal benefits.

Cancer. A serving (about four sprouts) gives you 3 grams of insoluble fiber for protection from colon cancer.

You also end up with an array of protectors with long, complicated names. indoles destroy the estrogen that helps breast cancer get started. They also helps activate your body's protective forces. Isothiocyanates help eliminate or neutralize cancer-causing agents. Flavonoids inhibit hormones that help cancer grow. Sulforaphane bolsters the body's natural defenses. Carotenoids work as antioxidants to stop damage to healthy cells.

Eat a serving of fresh cooked brussels sprouts and get 80 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin C. More than 30 studies have shown that if you eat foods rich in vitamin C, you cut your risk of cancer. They're also a good source of cancer-fighting vitamin A and folate. Its vitamin B₆ helps maintain your immune system.

Heart disease. Heading the list of protective compounds are the 1.4 grams of soluble fiber that you get in ½ cup, helping to reduce cholesterol in your blood.

You also get a good amount of folate, which lowers your blood levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in the blood that seems to add to the buildup of harmful cholesterol in your arteries.

Vitamin C also reduces the artery-clogging LDL cholesterol while keeping levels of the protective HDL cholesterol high. Vitamin A weighs in to protect your heart. Some studies show that even some people with heart disease may be able to cut their risks when they add foods that are sources of vitamin A to their diets.

Cabbage

In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, a talking walrus speculates about cabbages and kings. It might have sounded like nonsense to put the two together, but the walrus had a point. Cabbage is a king of disease protection.

Any way you slice it, coleslaw it, steam it, boil it, or soup it, cabbage is a powerful disease-fighting food. And savoy cabbage, the crinkly stuff, is the leader of the protective pack.

Cancer. Researchers at the Strang-Cornell Cancer Research Lab in New York City found that women who eat lots of cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables have lower levels of a kind of estrogen that stimulates breast cancer. The estrogen declined just five days after the women started eating more cruciferous vegetables. And the levels stayed down for the three months of the study. Those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a head of cabbage daily got the most benefit. Researchers attribute the drop to one substance, indole-3-carbinol.

The list of heavy-duty cancer fighters in cabbage also includes flavonoids, indoles, monoterpenes, phenolic acids, plant sterols, and sulforaphane. This long list of the hard-to-pronounce natural chemicals stops cancer at every stage of its development. Some substances keep cancerous agents from getting the slightest toehold in cells. Others keep healthy cells from mutating, block tumor development, or cut off the blood supply to tumors.

Cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage also contain glutathione, which helps counter cellular destruction by free radicals.

Heart disease and stroke. One cup of shredded raw cabbage gives you 37.6 percent of the vitamin C that you need each day, increasing your protective HDL cholesterol and lowering hazardous LDL cholesterol levels.

That cup of shredded raw cabbage provides some folate, which helps decrease the risk of heart disease.

Cantaloupe

One of the food world's Southern belles, cantaloupe looks sweet but gets tough in your system. You get a mouthful of protection in every bite.

Cancer. You get a healthy 1.5 milligrams of beta-carotene from ½ cup of cubed cantaloupe or about 2.5 milligrams from a quarter of a melon.

Plus, that ½ cup of cubed cantaloupe gives you a little over 50 percent of the Daily Value of two heavy hitters against cancer: vitamin A and vitamin C. And folate weighs in for the fight against cancer. (folate may help ward off cancer of the cervix, colon, rectum, lung, and possibly the esophagus.) It also helps keep cells healthy and DNA—the substance that makes each person different—from getting damaged and passing on mutations to new cells. Glutathione may cut your risk of oral cancer and helps your immune system work as well as it did when you were a whole lot younger.

Heart disease and stroke. Beta-carot