Part of the book: Ecosystems Biodiversity
Part of the book: Molecular Approaches to Genetic Diversity
Vegetables have remarkable nutritional and health benefits. There are good reasons to include vegetables in human diet since they are enriched in bioactive compounds and by this reason they may help reduce the risk of some diseases. In this chapter, the nutrition quality and the effect on disease prevention of vegetables were analyzed. Each vegetable family and each vegetable contain a unique combination of bioactive compounds. The health benefit of vegetables should not be linked to one type of vegetable. Some experimental research evidences that vegetables exert antioxidative, anticarcinogenic, antidiabetic, and cardiovascular disease lowering effects are presented. The mechanism by which vegetable bioactive compounds decrease the risk of some of these diseases is complex and sometimes unknown.
Part of the book: Nutrition in Health and Disease