We all know fruits and vegetabls are healthy-well one group of scientists is trying to make them even healthier. Research at Kansas State University is boosting the amount of phytochemicals found in lettuce and tomatoes.
Phytochemicals are not nutrients or vitamins. they're natural chemicals found in plants that improve our health. The researchers found that stressing the plants by adding more u-v light and reducing the amount of fertilizer actually increases the amount of phytochemicals in these plants.
They hope making fruits and vegetables even healthier will improve the quality of our food and our health.
We spend a lot of money on healthcare in this country. Just to give you an idea, we spend about $8,500 per person per year. That's a lot of money being spent on healthcare and if you compare that to let's say the U.K. or many of the European countries, it's less than half, about $3,500 or $3, 300 per person per year so we spend a lot more than others, but our health outcome is not as great," explained Kansas State University researcher C. B. Rajashekar.
The researchers are still testing the taste, but don't expect much difference.