Nutritional Value, Benefits and Risks of Selected Foods

 

The idea that certain foods can prevent and treat disease is nothing new. As youngsters, we were told that chicken soup would help get rid of the flu, that roughage relieved constipation, that spinach made you strong. Compare with what we're told now, that's, well, kid's stuff. During the past several years, the scientific evidence supporting the healing power of foods has turned a trickle into a torrent—a convincing current even the nutrition naysayers can't dam.

Numerous studies have indicated that eating the right foods can prevent a host of ills. Most notable of them are high cholesterol, high blood pressure, gallstones, adult-onset (type II) diabetes, and cancers of the breast, ovaries, colon and prostate.

But food doesn't only have the potential to stave off disease; it can help cure it as well. The right foods can control diabetes, prevent osteoporosis, boost your immunity, and soothe a host of digestive woes.