WHOLE FOODS ARE MORE PROTECTIVE THAN SUPPLEMENTS

Food provides not only essential nutrients needed for life but also other bioactive compounds for health promotion and disease prevention. Consumption of fruit and vegetables, as well as grains, has been strongly associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and age-related functional decline.
Phytochemicals—the bioactive nonnutrient plant compounds in fruit, vegetables, grains, and other plant foods—have been linked to reductions in the risk of major chronic diseases.

Cells in humans and other organisms are constantly exposed to a variety of oxidizing agents, some of which are necessary for life. These agents may be present in air, food, and water, or they may be produced by metabolic activities within cells. The key factor is to maintain a balance between oxidants and antioxidants to sustain optimal physiologic conditions in the body.
Fruit and vegetables contain a wide variety of antioxidant compounds (phytochemicals) such as phenolics and carotenoids that may help protect cellular systems from oxidative damage and lower the risk of chronic diseases.
A recent study showed that the actions of the antioxidant nutrients alone do not explain the observed health benefits of diets rich in fruits and vegetables, because taken alone, the individual antioxidants studied in clinical trials do not appear to have consistent preventive effects.
Researchers from the Department of Food Science at Cornell University have shown that the major part of total antioxidant activity is from the combination of phytochemicals. The additive and synergistic effects of phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables are responsible for their potent antioxidant and anticancer activities.

The benefit of a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is attributed to the complex mixture of phytochemicals present in these and other whole foods. This explains why no single antioxidant can replace the combination of natural phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables and achieve their health benefits.
In lab studies, Cornell University researchers found that apple extract given together with apple skin worked better to prevent the oxidation of free-radicals (unstable molecules that damage cells and are believed to contribute to many diseases) than apple extract without the skin. They also found that catechins (a type of phytochemical found in apples), when combined with two other phytochemicals, had an effect that was five times greater than expected.

The evidence suggests that antioxidants or bioactive compounds are best acquired through whole-food consumption, not from expensive dietary supplements.
There are ≈8000 phytochemicals present in whole foods. These compounds differ in molecular size, polarity, and solubility, and these differences may affect the bioavailability and distribution of each phytochemical in different macromolecules, subcellular organelles, cells, organs, and tissues.
Pills or tablets simply cannot mimic this balanced natural combination of phytochemicals present in fruit and vegetables.

Therefore, scholars suggest that eating 5 to 10 servings of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily is an appropriate strategy for significantly reducing the risk of chronic diseasesand to meet the nutrient requirements for optimum health.

If you'd like to fully enjoy all the benefits of whole foods, buy organic fruit and vegetables. GMO foods have been proven to have fewer phytochemicals. Plants doused in thousands of pounds of Round Up Ready chemicals, the main herbicide used by Monsanto, actually produce less cancer-fighting flavanoids, too. Whether these changes were intended by the makers of GMO corn, soy, wheat, and sugar, are unknown, but GM crops have altered levels of nutrients in study after study.