What are phytonutrients?

One of the most potent components of food that effects gene expression on the molecular level is phytonutrients.

What is a phytonutrients? Phytonutrients, also called phytochemicals, are organic component of plants and promote optimal human health.  Technically there are including carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fiber.

People who eat more fruits and vegetables have about one-half the risk of cancer mortality than those people who are not plant eaters.

Plant-sourced diets are very high in phytonutrients, which include a variety of antioxidants, carotenes, vitamin E, vitamin C, phenolic compounds and terpenoids.

Some phytonutrients, such as the lycopene that makes tomatoes crimsons and watermelon bright pink, are pigments that provide plants with their bright hue; other have less obvious functions, such as defending plants against pesky germs, which may translate into protecting humans form cell damage.

In general, phytonutrients enhance immunity and cellular communications, alter estrogen metabolism, metabolize other nutrients, help ward off allergic response, fight cancer and serve as antioxidants and repair DNA damage from toxins like smoking.
What are phytonutrients?

Starch in food

Plants use water, carbon dioxide and energy from the sun to form simple sugars through a process called photosynthesis. When the sugar chains gather in large quantities inside a plant’s cells, they form starch grains, also called starch granules.

Starch is deposited in granules in almost all green plant and in various types of plant tissues and organs, e.g leaves, roots, shoots, fruits, grains and stems.

Grains are the riches food source of starch, providing much of the food energy for people all over the world. Starch may be produced from potatoes, rice, tapioca, or wheat by methods similar to corn, except that with potatoes and tapioca it is not necessary to degerm the product.

Starch is valuables because it can break down into simple sugars that provide human with sustained energy and keep them feeling full and satisfied.
Starch in food

Physiologic Roles of Dietary Fiber

Physiologic Roles of Dietary Fiber
Certain physical properties of fiber such as particle size influence its effect in the gastrointestinal tract. Important characteristics of dietary fiber in relation to its physiologic role include hydration, capacity, adsorptive attraction for organic molecules, cation exchange capacity and fermentability. Fiber exerts its effect throughout the gastrointestinal tract beginning in the mouth. Fiber components that cannot be solubilized (lignin, cellulose and most of the hemicellulose) require increased chewing, thereby stimulating, saliva secretion and serving somewhat as a tooth cleanser.

Often dietary fiber is classified as soluble or insoluble in order to more easily explain its physiological functions. This classification is imprecise, however, because determination of soluble fiber is very difficult and the amount resulting from fiber analysis is influenced by the method used.

The food providing dietary fiber can have a decisive influence in the gastrointestinal tract responses elicited because sources of fiber vary in the relative amount of the different fiber components. For example wheat bran, is primarily hemicellulose, while most fruits, and vegetables contain almost equal quantities of cellulose and pectin. Dietary fiber composition of plant depends on the plant species, the part of the plant consumed (leaf, root, stem) and its maturity. For example lignin is found relatively small amounts in edible plants; its content is highest in fruits with edible seeds, such as strawberries, and in mature root vegetables, such as carrots.
Physiologic Roles of Dietary Fiber