Everybody knows that fruit and veg are good for you. The NHS advise that the second most important thing you can do to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease is to eat more fruit and veg ( the first is to not smoke).

Interestingly though, whilst it’s a proven scientific fact that eating fruit and veg can help reduce incidences of all major diseases, it’s not yet fully understood why that is.

What we do know is that it’s essential to eat fruit and veg as they provide two main things:

• Phytonutrients and essential non- antioxidant vitamins and minerals
• Antioxidants

What is a phytonutrient?

Phytonutrients are the nutrients that come from plants. It’s essential for your body to get these nutrients to stay nice and healthy and function properly.

Anti-oxidants are the good guys. They protect the body against the damaging effects of oxidisation (which is the same process that turns an apple brown when you’ve bitten into it). The most well-known antioxidants are nutrients such as vitamins A, C, E, selenium and carotenoids (e.g beta-carotene). There are some anti-oxidants which are specific to fruits and vegetables, such as anthocyanins and flavanoids, which help to give them their colour and flavour.
Most of the berries are in the purple/red family and the colour in these fruits comes from a group of chemicals called anthocyanins.
The deep orange family contain fruit and veg which are rich in the carotenes. Carrots, pumpkins, mangoes, apricots and cantaloupe are all packed full of this stuff.
The yellow-orange family contain the citrus fruits as well as peaches, nectarines, pineapples and papayas. These fruits are rich in vitamin C and flavanoids.

Free radicals are unstable oxygen molecules that are responsible for the damaging process of oxidation. Free radicals are unstable because they only contain a single electron. If you can remember as far back as GCSE chemistry, you’ll know that means these molecules are hungry to find a partner (or another electron). In their quest to do this, they attack and damage healthy cells and can transform DNA. This is the process that can lead to the development of cancers. Free radicals can also damage the fatty acids in your blood and induce the hardening of your arteries, which won’t help your heart one bit.

Free radicals are a fact of life and are present in your body under normal circumstances from 3 main sources:

• Immune cells make free radicals to fight infections (to kill bacteria). So maintaining the supply of antioxidants in your body is especially important during infections, when free radicals will be in excess.
• All of the oxygen molecules we breathe in are converted to unstable free radicals during respiration.
• Free radicals can also come from the environment in which we live. A combination of pollution, fatty foods, cigarette smoke and alcohol can all contribute to their creation.