By Dr Tee E. Siong

Nutrition experts are always exhorting you to eat more fruits, vegetables, rice and other cereal products and legumes. This is not merely to ensure that you get your daily dose of vitamins, minerals as well as the all-crucial dietary fibre. Indeed, there are another reasons that may just surprise you!

Something else to chew on

Foods like oranges, cabbage and oats, like all other food, do indeed provide you different nutrients and vitamins. But these everyday foods, however, do more than just that. They also contain numerous naturally occurring components, which are thought to provide physiological and health benefits that go beyond just your basic nutrients.

These components are known as functional components, and foods containing them are called functional foods. In recent years, much attention has been generated on the potential health significance of these components and how they can reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart diseases.