Functional Foods:As detoxifying, Blocking And Anti-inflammatory Agents

              

We have talked about functional foods and how they act as antioxidants HERE, This week, we shall elaborate more on how the food we eat act as detoxifying, blocking and anti-inflammatory agents in our body. We are not saying that you should become obsessive with your food routine (or may be), we are only trying to emphasize on how important it is for us to adjust our meal plan to include balanced and functional food, especially for our growing kids. Knowing these functional foods will help us plan our meals properly.

We eat to live, not live to eat..Read on!

Detoxifying Agents as functional foods

The next functional list of foods are the detoxifying agents, these are foods that we eat that help cleanse the body from toxins. A lot of people detoxify their body through so many means, but eating special foods and drinking enough water are the best ways to detoxify the body. Some of these foods are tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, onions, mustard, pineapples and green pepper. They produce theolic properties that activate the liver detoxification enzymes which help to reduce the incidence of tumour.

 

Suppressing/Blocking Agents as functional foods

These are foods that contain chemicals which act by preventing potential toxic agents and carcinogens from reaching the target tissues or by even suppressing their actions. These are foods with allelic sulphides which can make carcinogens to be inactive. Some of these foods are garlic, pumpkin, all yellow vegetables and yams. They facilitate the excretion of cholesterol from the body and prevent the development of cancer. Beans and other legumes are also rich in isoflavones, people who eat plenty of these, will rarely develop breast, uterus or prostrate cancers.

Anti-inflammatory Agents as functional foods

These are foods that helps suppress or prevent inflammations especially in the cell membranes. Even though, inflammation is part of the body’s immune response, there are some cases of out-of-control inflammations, examples are in cases of arthritis and abdominal spasms.  Fatty acid rich foods increase the cell membrane content of enoic acid. They act as anti inflammatory agents. Fish oil supplements, salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines are examples of this type of functional food. That is why you give these supplements to patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, and even for patients with uterus and abdominal pains, especially during and after menstrual pains.

To be continued....