Nutrient Levels are Dropping

According to research done at Iowa University, typical fruit or vegetable travels thousands of miles over several days to get from the farm where it was grown and harvested to the supermarket. Produce grown in Chile, Mexico, China, and other countries travel even farther. Levels of many vitamins and antioxidants drop as soon as a fruit or vegetable is picked. The longer it takes to go from stem to store, the less nutritious your produce. To ensure that some varieties of fruits and vegetables are not overripe when they reach the store, farmers pick them earlier in the ripening cycle. The less ripe a fruit or vegetable is at harvest, the fewer nutrients it will contain.

Enliven Meals with Olives

Olives are such a nutritional power-house that we’ve added them to your daily food plan right from the start. They are great snack foods. Three-quarters of the caloric content from olives comes from healthful monounsaturated fat that can lower levels of bad LDL cholesterol and raise good. Olives are a rich source of vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant that disarms dangerous free radicals and help prevent colon cancer. The polyphenols and flavonoids in olives fight inflammation in the body, which can relieve the symptoms of asthma and arthritis.