If it is difficult to quit junk food, you should start by adding more vegetables and fruits
There are foods that are always on the cutting board of controversy over whether they are good for health or bad. Coffee, chocolate, wine, etc. On the other hand, there are foods that are highly emphasized on their good qualities. It’s just vegetables and fruits.
Coffee contains antioxidants, which play a role in removing active oxygen in the body, but at the same time, there are papers that emphasize the disadvantages in that coffee can promote diuretic action and gastric acid secretion due to its high caffeine content. Chocolate also contains antioxidants. However, due to its high caffeine content and high calories, health risks have been highlighted. Research results suggesting that one drink a day is beneficial to health, and conflicting research results suggesting that even one drink is harmful to the body have been published.
Vegetables and fruits are arguably the healthiest foods. Studies have shown that eating 400 grams of fruits and vegetables daily can help prevent chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, dementia, and stroke. Since it’s not easy to know how much the yield is, the USDA has put forward the slogan, “Fill half your plate with plant foods.” Unfortunately, Americans’ eating habits have not been easily improved.
In our food culture, which does not eat less food on a plate, you can understand it by saying that you should eat about 2 cups of fruits and 3 cups of vegetables a day. What kind of positive changes will occur in our body when we fill this amount?
Proven to improve physical and mental health
One of the powerful benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption is ‘cardiovascular disease prevention’. According to a study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, people who ate 500 grams of fruits and vegetables a day had a 16 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who ate less than 50 grams.
What plays a big role here is ‘soluble fiber’. It lowers blood cholesterol levels and reduces the amount of glucose absorbed into the intestines. When sugar is rapidly absorbed into the intestine, blood sugar rises and insulin levels rise, increasing the risk of developing diabetes. Blood vessel damage also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Vitamin C also plays a major role. Studies have shown that it reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 21% by controlling inflammation that damages the arteries. Various minerals in plant foods lower the risk of stroke. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that fruit and vegetable consumption reduces the risk of stroke by 10-19%. Especially when sodium intake is high, you should eat plant foods that are high in potassium. Sodium draws water into the cells and increases blood pressure, but potassium draws water and lowers blood pressure to help protect cardiovascular health.
Eating vegetables and fruits is also beneficial for mental health. This means that it can also help prevent or delay dementia. Green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, kiwi, apples, berries, and citrus fruits have been published in papers that support brain health.
Flavonoids, a yellow pigment component of plants, increase blood flow to the brain, suppress inflammation, and protect brain cells from ‘amyloid plaques’ that cause Alzheimer’s. Fruits and vegetables have various colors such as red, yellow, orange, and green, and the ingredients that produce these colors protect cells and help prevent cancer.
“Junk food tastes better” Rather than immediately replacing it with vegetables and fruits…
Eating vegetables and fruits is also beneficial for weight management. To lose weight, you basically have to eat less, but that alone is not enough. You can manage your weight smoothly if you fill the necessary nutrients well. Vegetables and fruits are relatively low in calories but rich in nutrients. Thanks to the fiber, it is also high in satiety.
Unfortunately, there is a reason why people have not been able to focus on eating vegetables and fruits since the 1980s, when obesity rates began to rise rapidly. This is because the consumption of processed foods that are easy to cook and easy to carry has increased rapidly.
Processed foods are relatively low in nutritional value, but they stimulate the taste buds so strongly that they arouse the desire to continue eating. It doesn’t work if you try to replace junk food with vegetables and fruits because they taste good. As a result, despite the slogan of the US Department of Agriculture, vegetable and fruit intake is not increasing well.
In this case, there is a way. Experts recommend having a habit of eating additional salads or fruits every day rather than quitting junk food right away. This will help you gradually increase your fruit and vegetable intake and reduce your junk food intake.