Six Healthy Foods That Make You Healthier
What are the "Six Friends Among Vegetables"? They are carrots, pumpkin, bitter melon, tomatoes, garlic, and black fungus. This group of vegetables each has high nutritional value and medicinal health functions. Long-term, moderate consumption of them can resist aging, enhance beauty, prevent cancer and disease, and promote health and longevity.
Carrot
Also known as yellow radish, it is a nutritious vegetable suitable for all ages, honored as "little ginseng". The most famous component in carrots is carotene—a yellow pigment first discovered in carrots over a hundred years ago. It is now known that every 100 grams of carrots contain 1.35 to 17.25 milligrams of carotene, far more than other vegetables—360 times that of potatoes and 36 times that of celery.
After being absorbed by the human body, carotene can be converted into vitamin A, so carotene is also called vitamin A precursor. What's valuable is that even after boiling, steaming, or sun exposure, the carotene in carrots is lost very little. Regular consumption of carrots has many benefits for the body: first, it enhances immunity and prevents cancer and disease. If the human body lacks vitamin A, it not only affects the eyes and skin greatly, but also leads to poor resistance and is prone to respiratory and urinary system diseases. If you often eat carrots to meet the body's need for vitamin A, it not only nourishes the eyes and mucous membranes, making it less likely to get night blindness and colds, but also enhances the body's disease resistance. In addition, carrots contain a large amount of lignin, which also has the effect of improving the body's disease resistance and can reduce and prevent the occurrence of cancer. According to British and American cancer research institutions, after more than 20 years of observation, it was determined that people who often eat carrots and other foods rich in vitamin A have a 40% lower chance of getting lung cancer than those who do not often eat such foods.
Second, it is for beauty and fitness. Another function of vitamin A is to maintain the normal function of the body's epithelial tissue, causing it to secrete glycoprotein to keep the skin moist and tender. Therefore, regular consumption of carrots can maintain a radiant and youthful image. In addition, carrots contain mustard oil and amylase, which can promote the metabolism of fat, prevent excessive fat from accumulating under the skin and causing obesity, and maintain a healthy body. Therefore, Americans consider carrots a beauty food that can nourish hair, skin, and mucous membranes. Now Europeans often eat carrot pastries, and even Russians eat carrot dumplings. In our country, there are also carrot drinks and carrot-apple beauty juices, but generally, carrots are stir-fried, braised, stewed, or boiled as dishes.
Pumpkin
In the days of food shortages, pumpkin once played a major role as a staple food, but in today's well-off society, why is pumpkin still so popular? There are three reasons: first, pumpkin is sweet and delicious; second, pumpkin is extremely rich in vitamin A, which can strengthen the mucous membranes, prevent colds, and at the same time prevent rough skin, have beauty and fitness effects, and also prevent keratitis, night blindness, etc.; third, modern medicine has discovered that pumpkin contains trace elements such as cobalt, zinc, copper, and pectin, which can promote the normal secretion of insulin in the human body, so pumpkin can effectively prevent and treat diabetes, hypertension, and some diseases of the liver and kidneys, enhance the ability to resist anemia and cancer, remove bacterial toxicity from the body, reduce the risk of colon cancer, and prevent and treat atherosclerosis.
When eating pumpkin, deep-frying it or coating it with batter can increase the absorption rate of vitamin A, giving full play to the function of vitamin A. Cutting pumpkin into pieces and simmering it with kelp to make pumpkin kelp soup is a great food for preventing diabetes.
In addition, processing pumpkin into pumpkin powder and eating it daily has the effect of lowering blood sugar and fighting cancer. Pentose extracted from pumpkin powder is used to treat diabetes with a significant hypoglycemic effect.
Bitter Melon
Bitter melon has won people's special love with its bitter taste.
The nutritional and health characteristics of bitter melon are: first, it contains relatively more vitamin C, vitamin B1, and alkaloids; second, it also contains relatively more galacturonic acid and pectin. The bitter taste of bitter melon comes from quinine in the alkaloids. These nutrients have the effects of promoting appetite, diuresis, activating blood, reducing inflammation, reducing fever, and refreshing the mind. Modern scientific research has found that "polypeptide-P" in bitter melon is a substance similar to insulin, which has the effect of lowering blood sugar. Xi'an Medical University has extracted oral insulin-like substance from bitter melon. American scientists have also discovered that bitter melon contains a protein-lipid substance that can stimulate and enhance the ability of immune cells in animals to swallow cancer cells. It can work together with quinine in alkaloids to play an anti-cancer role in the body.
Although bitter melon is bitter, it tastes cool in nature, refreshing and not greasy when eaten, and feels refreshing and comfortable in summer, with the effect of clearing the heart and whetting the appetite. Although bitter melon is bitter, it will never pass its bitterness to "others". For example, if you use bitter melon to cook fish, the fish pieces will never absorb the bitter taste. Therefore, bitter melon has the nickname "gentleman among vegetables". If you soak bitter melon into a cold tea to drink in summer, you will feel refreshed and relaxed, and all vexation and thirst will disappear.
In some areas, bitter melon is cut, slightly pickled with salt to reduce some bitterness, and eaten as a vegetable; in others, it is sliced into rings and stewed with minced meat, garlic, and fermented black beans to make a delicacy. There is a folk song in Hakka that goes: "People say bitter melon is bitter, but I say it's sweet. You can choose sweet or bitter, but without bitterness, where is the sweetness?" This means that bitter melon itself is bitter, but what it brings to people is sweetness—health and happiness.
Tomato
It is said that a few hundred years ago, tomatoes were still unknown. Later, a girl in Peru suffered from anemia, and the pain of a love affair made her want to eat a poisonous plant to end her life. But who would have thought that after she ate the tomato fruit, her face turned red, and when she ate more, it became even ruddier. Not only did she not die, but she recovered and became more beautiful. What was the reason? It turned out that the tomato fruit contains very rich protein, fat, carbohydrates, nicotinic acid, carotene, vitamins B1, B2, C, etc. The content of vitamin C, which can beautify the skin, is 10 times that of watermelon, simply a warehouse of vitamins. It also contains minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron that promote the growth and development of young people, as well as lycopene that inhibits bacterial growth. With all this, it's no wonder the Peruvian girl became healthy and beautiful!
In recent years, scientists have discovered that tomatoes also contain a substance that fights cancer and anti-aging—glutathione. Clinical measurements have shown that when the concentration of glutathione in the human body rises, the incidence of cancer decreases significantly. Therefore, eating more tomatoes can prevent uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, etc., and at the same time delay the aging of some cells, lower blood pressure, prevent night blindness, gum bleeding, etc.
Because eating tomatoes has so many benefits, almost every family in developed countries in Europe and America eats tomatoes, the purpose of which is to prevent cancer, resist disease, and beautify the skin.
When eating tomatoes, you must pay attention to the method. Raw eating does not fight cancer or disease because tomatoes contain lycopene, which is combined with protein and surrounded by cellulose, making it difficult to be released. It needs to be heated to a certain extent to be released. Therefore, stir-fried eggs with tomatoes, tomato egg soup, braised tofu with tomatoes, stir-fried meat with tomatoes, and fried tomatoes are all nutritious and delicious delicacies.
Garlic
Garlic, also known as garlic head, foreign garlic, etc., is a food loved by people all over the world. Legend has it that an ancient king of Babylon was addicted to garlic to the point of requiring his subjects to tribute a large amount of garlic to the palace every year. Because garlic is rich in nutrients and various active substances, its nutritional health, disease prevention and treatment functions are very strong.
First, the greatest value of garlic is cancer prevention and anti-cancer, known as the king of anti-cancer. Cangshan County in Shandong Province is an important garlic-producing area, where people enjoy eating garlic all year round. Surveys show that the incidence and mortality rates of various tumors in Cangshan County are the lowest in the province, and the mortality rates of common esophageal cancer, cervical cancer, etc. are less than half of the provincial average. After two years of research, scientists confirmed that garlic can prevent and reduce various cancers. This is because garlic contains a variety of anti-cancer substances, can block the synthesis of carcinogenic nitrosamines, and can also inhibit the human body's absorption of nitrosamines, and has an inhibitory effect on the growth of various cancer cells, with its anti-cancer rate reaching 42%-59%.
Second, the various nutrients and active substances contained in garlic are beneficial to prevent and inhibit the occurrence and development of arteriosclerosis, hyperglycemia, hypertension, heart disease, and also have the effect of inhibiting the aging of human cells. Again, garlic has a strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect. Garlic contains allicin and neomycin, which have a powerful inhibitory and killing effect on various microorganisms and parasites, known as plant broad-spectrum antibiotics.
Garlic is so valuable, so how should we eat it? First, cut the garlic into slices and let it stand for 15 minutes to fully combine with oxygen to produce allicin before eating, because only oxidized allicin can fight cancer. Second, for long-term consumers, do not overeat it every day because garlic has a strong bactericidal effect, which will also kill the beneficial bacteria in the body at the same time. Therefore, eat three cloves of garlic a day, and if it is heated, limit it to four cloves a day. Third, soak the peeled garlic in soy sauce, which can be used as a seasoning for stir-frying. Fourth, to fully absorb the components in garlic without waste, you can grind it and add it to tomato juice to drink, which can eliminate the fishy smell of tomatoes and also has the effect of preventing colds. Fifth, for those who cannot adapt to the pungent smell of garlic, you can stir-fry it with vegetables and meat, and take it together with vegetables and meat, which can reduce its pungent smell and reduce its bactericidal power, but the heating time must not exceed 15 minutes to avoid some nutrients in garlic becoming ineffective. Sixth, after eating garlic, there will be a pungent and strange smell, which is not a problem. As long as you chew a small amount of tea, you can remove it.
Black Fungus
Black fungus gets its name from its shape resembling a human ear. It is a specialty of our country, exported all over the world, and has been famous internationally for a long time. It is not only crisp, refreshing, smooth, tender, delicious, and nutritious, but also an edible, medicinal, and nourishing "vegetarian among non-vegetarian foods".
Black fungus is rich in various nutrients and is a unique nutrient concentrate. It not only has high nutritional value, but also high medicinal and health functions. Because it contains more gelatin, it has the function of moistening the lungs and cleansing the gastrointestinal tract, thus becoming a health food for textile and mine workers to remove internal dirt and foreign objects. Modern medical research has also found that many patients with heart disease are not because fat and cholesterol in the blood adhere to the inner wall of blood vessels and block blood flow, but because blood clots produced by platelet aggregation narrow blood vessels, causing heart attacks.
And black fungus happens to have a significant anticoagulant effect, can inhibit platelet aggregation, make blood not sticky, and can prevent and treat coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. This was discovered by an American heart expert, and he won the Nobel Prize for it. In addition, black fungus also contains polysaccharides and other anti-cancer substances, which have a powerful inhibitory effect on cancer cells. Therefore, most people in Europe and America are now keen on eating black fungus.
There are many ways to eat black fungus. After soaking the dried black fungus in boiling water, washing it clean, it can be stir-fried, mixed, made into cakes, used in soups, or used as a side dish for various meat and vegetable dishes. When black fungus is used in cooking, it can be made into black fungus stir-fried with meat, black fungus stir-fried with chicken giblets, stir-fried wood-ear meat, drunkenly braised yellow croaker with black fungus, black fungus soup, black fungus and daylily soup, etc.