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Adding on to the various health benefits of fruits and vegetables is another health benefit. They have the capability of reducing the risk of arthritis. The beneficial compound in fruits and vegetables is carotenoid.

The new study suggested that dietary carotenoids, the orange and yellow pigments responsible for the colon of some fruits and vegetables, can reduce inflammation around joints, due to their antioxidative properties.

The study, led by Dr. Alan J. Silman at The University of Manchester, analyzed data from a study involving more than twenty-five thousand participants from 1993 to 2001 to determine if there is an association between dietary carotenoids and arthritis risk.

The participants were followed to assess the occurrence of arthritis affecting multiple joints. During the eight-year follow-up, eighty-eight participants developed arthritis.

On average, the arthritic patients had a forty percent lower daily intake of beta-cryptoxanthin and a twenty percent lower intake of zeaxanthin compared to the participants without arthritis.

In addition, participants who had the highest intake of beta-crytoxanthin and zeaxanthin were fifty percent less likely to develop inflammatory polyarthritis than those who had the lowest intake.

The study further found that consumption of two other carotenoids, lutein and Lycopene, did not seem to have a protective effect against arthritis.

Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Free radicals, species with unpaired electrons have been implicated in a number of degenerative diseases, and even cancer. The scientific community has been trying hard to protect the body form the harmful effects of free radicals by supplementation with anti-oxidants, substances that counteract the free radicals.

Anti-oxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables. It has now been found that mushrooms have plenty of these, which could help fight chronic disease.

Numerous studies have shown that consuming fruit and vegetables, which are high in antioxidants, may reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases. Ergothioneine, a unique metabolite produced by fungi, has been shown to have strong antioxidant properties and to provide cellular protection within the human body.

Joy Dubost, doctoral candidate in food science and other Pennsylvania state food scientists have found that among the most commonly consumed mushrooms, portabellas and criminis have the most of the antioxidant ergothioneine. The white buttons follow close behind.

Infact, white button mushrooms have about 12 times more of the antioxidant than wheat germ and four times more than chicken liver that are held to be the richest source of antioxidant ergothioneine.

Surprisingly, the levels of ergothioneine do not decrease when the mushrooms are cooked. The antioxidant limits cell oxidation in the human body.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service