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A Tasty Alternative to Vitamins

Food Synergy: 1 + 1 = 3

By Laurie Barclay, MD
WebMD Feature

Aug. 27, 2001 -- Remember the Galloping Gourmet, known for his luscious cuisine rich in cream, butter, and egg yolks? Since his near-fatal accident in 1972, and his wife Treena's heart attack in 1986, world-renowned chef Graham Kerr has turned over a new, greener leaf.

His low-fat fruit and vegetable creations are now equally delicious, but far healthier. So healthy, in fact, that they are featured on the "Do Yourself a Flavor" TV spots produced by the National Cancer Institute.

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"The series now runs nearly 350 episodes and is a great thrill for all of us who worked on the project," Kerr tells WebMD. "We know that the antioxidants and phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables can make a huge difference in the fight against cancer. This surely is the most positive of all public service announcements -- it heads off a serious threat to public health with a totally delicious alternative. I'm truly grateful to be involved."

Kerr's series promotes the 5-A-Day plan recommending more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in our diet, which makes perfect sense to researchers at the First International Conference on Food Synergy held this May in Washington.

"When it comes to diet, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts," says David R. Jacobs, PhD , professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "There may be nutrients in food that we don't even know about yet, and the effect of different nutrients working together may be better than each one working alone."

What Exactly Is Food Synergy?

Picture a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant so high-tech that it produces thousands of chemicals beneficial to human health, at a cost of only pennies per day. Now imagine that it is solar-powered, uses only water and carbon dioxide as raw materials, gives off no toxic waste, and fits in the palm of your hand.

Science fiction? No -- a simple tomato.

Or not-so-simple, considering that in addition to vitamins C and A, beta-carotene, fiber, and lycopene that protects the prostate gland from cancer, the tomato undoubtedly also contains a host of other health tonics that research is only beginning to discover.

Phytochemicals -- or beneficial chemicals made by plants -- can protect against aging, infection, cancer, and heart disease, explains Johanna Lampe, RD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. They act as antioxidants that reduce cell damage, stimulate the immune system, and fight bacteria and viruses. They can reduce blood pressure, regulate cholesterol and hormones, and prevent stroke by keeping platelets from sticking together.

"The combination of these biologic processes, rather than any one mechanism, influences disease risk," Lampe tells WebMD.

"Every vegetable and fruit has a unique profile of phytonutrients exerting beneficial effects on our bodies to prevent disease," says David Heber, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine and public health at UCLA.

So far, more than 25,000 different phytonutrients have been discovered in fruits and vegetables. Researchers are now discovering that these chemicals work in concert, orchestrating natural harmony in body systems. To keep our bodies finely tuned, the best diet is one featuring a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes.

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