Protecting Your Health With Fruits & Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are naturally gluten-free. They contain essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Compared with people who consume a diet with only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts as part of a healthful diet are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.

Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C.

NUTRIENT INFORMATION

Fiber
Diets rich in dietary fiber have been shown to have a number of beneficial effects including decreased risk of coronary artery disease.

Excellent vegetable sources:
navy beans, kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, white beans, soybeans, split peas, chick peas, black eyed peas, lentils, artichokes

Folate
Healthful diets with adequate folate may reduce a woman’s risk of having a child with a brain or spinal cord defect.

Excellent vegetable sources:
black eyed peas, cooked spinach, great northern beans, asparagus

Potassium
Diets rich in potassium may help to maintain a healthy blood pressure.

Good fruit and vegetable sources:
sweet potatoes, tomato paste, tomato purée, beet greens, white potatoes, white beans, lima beans, cooked greens, carrot juice, prune juice

Vitamin A
Vitamin A keeps eyes and skin healthy and helps to protect against infections.

Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, collard greens, winter squash, cantaloupe, red peppers, Chinese cabbage

Vitamin C
Vitamin C helps heal cuts and wounds and keep teeth and gums healthy.

Excellent fruit and vegetable sources:
red and green peppers, kiwi, strawberries, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, broccoli, pineapple, Brussels sprouts, oranges, mangoes, tomato juice, cauliflower