What is is your Vegetables - find out more about the vitamins and minerals

Vegetables are a source of vitamins and minerals and should be part of any diet. Here we highlight what vitamins and minerals are in Asparagus, Aubergines and Carrots and how they can help lower Cholesterol.

Asparagus

Asparagus is one of the richest vegetable sources of vitamin B9 or folate. It also contains [phytoestrogens] (lignans), [saponins] and [phytosterols]. Asparagus is a good source of the soluble [fibre], inulin and other oligofructose polymers. Some people report that asparagus causes their urine to smell; the culprit being asparagusic acid. But do not be put off eating this vegetable, if it is in your urine then it was in your blood and if it's in your blood you know that you have got full benefit of the vitamins and minerals it contains, especially the vitamins B6, B9, A and C.

Aubergine

The Aubergine or eggplant is a native plant of India and China and although eaten in the UK as a vegetable, is actually a fruit. Like many fruits in order to achieve wide spread dispersal of the seeds it carries it has to advertise the fact by making itself visible against the green foliage - hence the dark purple colour of the skin. There is a general rule that the greater the richness of colour of a fruit or vegetable, the more powerful its potential effect on health. It thus comes as no surprise that it is the purple pigment of the fruit that is of most interest to scientists. Antioxidant Potential - This deep purple skin colour is due to [anthocyanin] pigments with known antioxidant activities. The specific form in aubergine is called nasunin and has been shown to be a potent scavenger of free radicals - powerful [oxidants] and a major cause of age and lifestyle related diseases. Nusumin is also reported to have anti-angiogenesis activity, that is it blocks the development of new blood vessels. The development of a good supply is a characteristic of cancerous (malignant) tissues and thus it has been suggested that nusumin may have anticancer properties. Lowering Cholesterol - The flesh of the aubergine is white due to a lack of pigments and is only a moderate source of vitamins, however there are reports that aubergine extracts can have a significant effect on lowering blood cholesterol. This may be due to their high viscous [fibre] components such as pectin which can trap cholesterol preventing its uptake by the digestive tract - analogous to the way the pectin traps fruits in jam and stops it sinking to the bottom of the jar.

Carrots

All the text books quote carrots as being an excellent source of the [carotenoid] ß-carotene (provitamin A), but this makes the assumption that all carrots are orange. In fact carrots can come in a range of colours; red due to lycopene, yellow/green due to lutein and purple due to anthocyanin. Effect on Diseases - Like ß-carotene, lutein and lycopene are [carotenoids] whilst anthocyanin is a [flavanoid], but they all have strong [antioxidant] activity which has been associated with reduced risk of developing age and lifestyle related diseases. However, their specific benefit are very different; ß-carotene may guard against lung cancer, lycopene against prostate cancer, lutein against macular degeneration and anthocyanin against cardiovascular disease.

For a full guide to What is in Fruit and Vegetables visit Thompson & Morgan supplier of Fruit Trees, Vegetable Seeds and Bedding Plants