It's no wonder that so many people get tired of hearing about vegetables. We're constantly being told to "eat our veggies" by nutritionists, magazine articles, and diet books. In fact, we're often given the green light to eat unlimited amounts of vegetables. Eating health-promoting vegetables has become "old news."

At WHFoods, we have always been confident that the taste of carefully prepared fresh vegetables can win over many people's taste buds and help increase their vegetable intake. But without some initial level of excitement about vegetables, a person might never get around to trying them!

As we update the website we are always both excited and surprised at our findings when delving into the world of research on vegetables. We could even use the words continuously "astonished" or "blown away" to describe our experience of discovering the remarkable health benefits provided by individual vegetables!

For example, we learned that one cup of green peas contains 10 milligrams or more of coumestrol, a phytoestrogen that can lower risk of stomach cancer when consumed on a regular basis. And we learned that spinach - a vegetable in the amaranth family - was better able to lower risk of certain aggressive prostate cancers than Brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens, cabbage, turnip greens, or mustard greens (all cruciferous vegetables). We also learned that the lignans and curcubitacins in cucumber make this vegetable unique in terms of its health benefits.

We have already reviewed over 1,000 vegetable studies and the health research in these studies is something that you literally have to see with your own eyes in order to believe. While this statement might sound like an exaggeration, it is not. The science on vegetable health benefits is simply overwhelming. Our own excitement about vegetables is so closely tied to the research that we wanted you to have the same experience that we have had. So in each of our 38 website vegetable profiles, you will find a section entitled "Health Benefits." These Health Benefits sections summarize many key research findings specific to the vegetable being profiled. You are likely to change your thinking about many specific vegetables after reading over these Health Benefits sections. We know that we did! (And if you are interested in delving even further into the research, you will find over 500 references for vegetable studies currently available on our website. Just use our References Tool to review an alphabetized list of references for each individual vegetable.)

Health research often provides information that is pivotal and "need to know" for researchers, but at best, "nice to know" for the rest of us. In the case of vegetables' health benefits, however, the research may help change your thinking about this food group, and take you to the point where you will want to "eat more veggies" because you will be so much more knowledgeable about their amazing health benefits.

Additionally another exciting note about vegetables is their nutrient-richness in relation to their low calorie count — invaluable in a climate in which there is such overwhelming concern about obesity. For more see our Veggie Advisor Q & A entitled "Why Vegetables are so Indispensable."