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CNN Live Today

'Daily Dose'

Aired November 20, 2002 - 11:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, you know fruits and vegetables are good for you, but do you know what makes these colorful edibles better than popping a pill or a vitamin.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us with some answers in our new "Daily Dose" segment.

Good morning. You brought breakfast.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Did your mom always tell you eat your fruits and veggies?

KAGAN: No.

COHEN: My mom did. Your mom was wrong; my mom was right.

KAGAN: She let us eat cookies and sugar cereals. I know, it was the fun house on the block. But most moms did.

COHEN: Most moms do say eats your fruits and vegetables, and here is a study that says mom was right. It's a study done out of Finland, and what they found is that people who ate lots of fruits and vegetables had a lower chance of getting heart disease, strokes, diabetes, certain kinds of cancer, lots of different chronic diseases, and why would that be, well, these researchers think it's something in these fruits and vegetables called flavonoids.

And we have here a selection that are high in the flavonoids that seem to be the most helpful, oranges, onions, apples, berries, and tea, especially green tea, seem to be highest in the flavonoids that were helpful.

KAGAN: Now some people like to eat well, some people say. oh, I'll just take a couple vitamins. What's the big deal?

COHEN: Exactly. Well, you know what, you can't get all these flavonoids in a pill. This is an example where you actually need to eat the food. You can get some of them in some vitamins and supplements, but they're hard to find, but you know what, you've got to eat the food.

KAGAN: How much do you have to eat?

COHEN: You need to eat as much as possible. The way the study is done it's hard to quantify it.

These are fruits and vegetables, not talking Twinkies here. You need to eat as much as possible. The people who got the greatest benefit were those who ate the most.

KAGAN: And then you also have a thing on soy nuts today.

COHEN: Yes, a study out of the American Heart Association...

KAGAN: Tasty.

COHEN: They're not as bad as they might sound.

And this is a study that found that when they gave women with high blood pressure soy nuts and told them to eat soy nuts, it actually sent their blood pressure down, 10 percent drop in the sold blood pressure -- that's the top number -- 7 percent drop in the diet solid blood pressure, and a 54 percent reduction in hot flashes. And I happen to have here under my chair some soybeans, and soy nuts are just roasted soybeans.

KAGAN: Do you just eat them out of the bag like that?

COHEN: You wouldn't Not these. These are the soybeans. You would roast them and eat them. You need half a cup a day. What's interesting is it should be spread out throughout the day. They found it worked best when you ate a little bit here and there. It kept the chemicals of whatever you needed at a constant level.

KAGAN: Like a little soy snack.

COHEN: Right, a little soy snack throughout the day, so you're not scarfing down one cup at one time.

KAGAN: Right, if my mom's watching, it's a good thing she had me eat all those sugar. Can you imagine, I'd be like 6'10" if I had good nutrition.

COHEN: And I'm 5'2" so what went wrong here? What happened.

KAGAN: Something like that. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 20, 2002 - 11:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, you know fruits and vegetables are good for you, but do you know what makes these colorful edibles better than popping a pill or a vitamin.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us with some answers in our new "Daily Dose" segment.

Good morning. You brought breakfast.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Did your mom always tell you eat your fruits and veggies?

KAGAN: No.

COHEN: My mom did. Your mom was wrong; my mom was right.

KAGAN: She let us eat cookies and sugar cereals. I know, it was the fun house on the block. But most moms did.

COHEN: Most moms do say eats your fruits and vegetables, and here is a study that says mom was right. It's a study done out of Finland, and what they found is that people who ate lots of fruits and vegetables had a lower chance of getting heart disease, strokes, diabetes, certain kinds of cancer, lots of different chronic diseases, and why would that be, well, these researchers think it's something in these fruits and vegetables called flavonoids.

And we have here a selection that are high in the flavonoids that seem to be the most helpful, oranges, onions, apples, berries, and tea, especially green tea, seem to be highest in the flavonoids that were helpful.

KAGAN: Now some people like to eat well, some people say. oh, I'll just take a couple vitamins. What's the big deal?

COHEN: Exactly. Well, you know what, you can't get all these flavonoids in a pill. This is an example where you actually need to eat the food. You can get some of them in some vitamins and supplements, but they're hard to find, but you know what, you've got to eat the food.

KAGAN: How much do you have to eat?

COHEN: You need to eat as much as possible. The way the study is done it's hard to quantify it.

These are fruits and vegetables, not talking Twinkies here. You need to eat as much as possible. The people who got the greatest benefit were those who ate the most.

KAGAN: And then you also have a thing on soy nuts today.

COHEN: Yes, a study out of the American Heart Association...

KAGAN: Tasty.

COHEN: They're not as bad as they might sound.

And this is a study that found that when they gave women with high blood pressure soy nuts and told them to eat soy nuts, it actually sent their blood pressure down, 10 percent drop in the sold blood pressure -- that's the top number -- 7 percent drop in the diet solid blood pressure, and a 54 percent reduction in hot flashes. And I happen to have here under my chair some soybeans, and soy nuts are just roasted soybeans.

KAGAN: Do you just eat them out of the bag like that?

COHEN: You wouldn't Not these. These are the soybeans. You would roast them and eat them. You need half a cup a day. What's interesting is it should be spread out throughout the day. They found it worked best when you ate a little bit here and there. It kept the chemicals of whatever you needed at a constant level.

KAGAN: Like a little soy snack.

COHEN: Right, a little soy snack throughout the day, so you're not scarfing down one cup at one time.

KAGAN: Right, if my mom's watching, it's a good thing she had me eat all those sugar. Can you imagine, I'd be like 6'10" if I had good nutrition.

COHEN: And I'm 5'2" so what went wrong here? What happened.

KAGAN: Something like that. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com