What amount of food phytochemicals is healthy?
Although research is supporting their significant health benefits, phytochemicals are presently considered “non-essential” nutrients. Unlike vitamins and minerals, there are no RDAs or DRIs for them. One reason for the difficulty in setting a level is that there are so many of these phytonutrients that appear to provide health benefits; hundreds are presently being researched for their health-promoting effects. Another reason for the difficulty in setting standards for consumption is that many of these phytonutrients have similar acitivites. Instead of a lot of one specific compound, it may be more important to have a certain level of a family of compounds, but you can have different amouts of the individual compounds and still get the health-benefit. Finally, new research is uncovering that many of these phytonutrients act synergistically; that is, they help each other and provide more benefit when taken with other phytonturients than alone. This is a major reason for eating whole foo
