What are Phytonutrients?

The term Phytonutrient combines the Greek word, "phyto" (plant) with "nutrient" but refers specifically to those compounds that are thought to benefit human health. Found in fruits and vegetables, teas, spices and grains, phytonutrients have a profoundly greater potential to promote good health than the 'essential' carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals found in plants. Phytonutritents are also generally responsible for the properties of plants that most strongly affect the human senses, such as the brilliant colors of tomato or turmeric, the smell of ginger or the astringent taste of green tea.
      Examples of well-studied phytonutrients include sulforaphane in broccoli, isoflavones of soy, EGCG in green tea, lycopene in tomato and curcumin in turmeric, but it is generally understood that much of the benefit of each of these molecules is due to synergistic effects between thousands of additional phytonutrients found in the properly prepared whole-food extracts of these plants.