Dr. Schwartz's Tips on Healthy Foods

Dr. Schwartz’s article titled Food Matters discusses some interesting facts about food and how they affect our bodies. The article was very fascinating to me fore I am very conscientious of what I eat. Being overweight as a student middle school, I started reading health magazines, and much of Dr. Schwartz’s writing reminds me of those magazines. Furthermore, reading Dr. Schwartz’s article not only reminded me of what foods are healthy, but also helped me understand the science behind why these foods are healthy. This led me to further research foods that I eat on a regular basis as Dr Schwartz does not properly discuss health foods that I are extremely beneficial in ones diet. For example, Dr. Schwartz mentions how flax seeds may help prevent cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. I usually do not incorporate flax seeds in my diet as the taste is horrendous, but I do use an alternative as an healthy fat in my diet. Many health food magazines advised me to turn to natural peanut butter for healthy fatty acids. Dr Schwartz’s article encouraged me to look up health benefits of natural peanut butter and to see whether they were related to the health benefits of flax seeds.

As I surfed the net I found that like flax seeds, peanuts or peanut butter can also play an important role in lowering the rate of cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown consumption of peanuts can increase fiber, magnesium, foliate, vitamin E, copper, and argnine intake in the body. Increased ingestion of these compounds can help lower bad cholesterol or LDL levels . This is a key factor in helping prevent heart disease. New studies have also shown that just like flax seeds, peanut butter may help prevent certain types of cancer. The main reason behind this is that certain types of plant oils such as peanut plants have high concentrations of phytoesterols. Phytoesterols have proven to reduce breast and colon cancer and inhibit other types of cancer. Phytoesterols have also shown to protect our bodies against heart disease. It seems as though peanut butter has many of the same health benefits as flax seeds, however whether they are more or less is hard to determine; I am interested to research further and make the ultimate decision.