Anti-Oxidants

Natural sources of antioxidants, such as Vitamins C and E and beta carotene, are some of your best defenses against coronary-pulmonary aging. Choose from these foods when eating at least five servings per day of fruits and vegetables, better yet nine servings:

Vitamin C:
Red pepper, Brussels sprouts, papaya, orange, chestnuts, butternut squash, kiwi, strawberries, cantaloupe, kale, pink grapefruit, sweet potato, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. (The latter three also help the liver detoxify poisons and "bad" estrogens (16-hydroxyestrone) that promote breast, colon, cervical and prostate cancer.)

Vitamin E:
Almonds, spinach, parsnips, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, asparagus, sweet potato, wheat germ, brussels sprouts, peanuts, pecans.

Beta carotene:
Carrot, butternut squash, cantaloupe, sweet potato, kale, watercress, apricot, red pepper, turnip greens, mango.

A good rule of thumb: Eat from the fruit and vegetable "color palette" each day and include red, green, orange, blue (blueberries) and yellow.

Eating lots of anti-oxidants keeps your lungs strong! According to an article in the FASEB Journal, people who ate the most antioxidants were able to exhale almost 1/2-cup more air in one second than people who ate much less. The ability to inhale and exhale volumes of air is called "Vital Capacity" and is perhaps the best physical exam indicator of life expectancy!

Reminder: Lung cancer is the number-one cancer killer - and that 18-percent of victims never smoked.

Do try to eat your nine servings of a rainbow variety of fruits, seeds, nuts and vegetables. Then take a professional quality multi-vitamin/mineral daily. As iron is a pro-oxidant, it should not be included usually except in the anemic, childrens formulas and for menstrating or pregnant females.