PUC-Rio 2014/2
BLUEBERRIES: ONE OF NATURE’S BEST FOODS
[1] Native to North America, blueberries have been part of the human diet for more than 13,000 years, long
before being formally recognized for their healthy and anti-cancer effects. Blueberries are among the best
foods you can eat, and I recommend eating them every day. I have created easy healthy recipes, diet
recipes, smoothie recipes – using blueberries, soy milk, ground flax seed, and other natural foods — that
[5] give my patients a variety of ways to enjoy this wonderful fruit.
Since blueberries contain flavonoids and other specific phytochemicals that help protect against vascular
instability, I instruct my diabetes and heart disease patients to eat fresh blueberries every day and to eat
frozen blueberries in the wintertime.
In general, my food recommendations are based on the nutrient per calorie ratio in a particular food.
[10] More precisely, I am concerned with a food’s micro nutrient per macro nutrient ratio. There are three
macro nutrients — fat, carbohydrate and protein. All foods contain some mix of all three. Macro nutrients
are the source of all calories.
One cup of blueberries contain 80 calories and a whole pint gives you about 225 calories. Like all other
foods, the calories in blueberries come from its macro nutrients — 56 grams of carbohydrate, 1.5 grams
[15] of fat and 2.7 grams of protein. But it is blueberries’ micro nutrient content that packs the most
impressive wallop. Blueberries are packed with tannins, anthocyanins that have been linked to prevention
— and even reversal — of age related mental decline and anti-cancer effects.
Blueberries are the only food so far that has been shown not just to prevent, but actually to reverse
abnormal physical and mental decline, including coordination and balance, in aged animals. The
[20] flavonoids in blueberries — catechin, epicatechin, myricetin, quercetin, ankaempferol — are a mouthful of
strangely spelled words, but more importantly, they are extremely valuable for superior health. And
remember, phytochemicals are not optional nutrients; they are essential for normal function of your
immune system.
Slightly adapted from http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article12.aspx
The main purpose of the text is:
to show how carbohydrates can be hazardous to one´s health.
to defend the idea that people with diabetes should not eat blueberries.
to demonstrate how healthier we can get by adding blueberries to our regular diet.
to argue that blueberries do not prevent physical nor mental decline as we grow older.
to attack the idea that blueberries help us fight against cancer effects.
Tudo com nota TRI em tempo real
