Incorporating healthy, whole food plants into our daily diet may protect us from disease more effectively than taking extra vitamin C, according to visiting United States-based nutritional immunologist Dr Jau Fei Chen.

Chen made a keynote speech about nutrition and the immune system at the opening ceremony of the "Health and Women" campaign launched in Beijing last Friday.

Organized by the China Women Activity Centre and China Disease Control Centre, "Health and Women" includes a series of programmes launched nationwide to promote healthy lifestyles and to reinforce public awareness of women's health.

Chen stressed in her speech the importance of nourishing our bodies with vital nutrients on a daily basis. "Balanced nutrition is an invaluable weapon in fortifying the body's own defences and providing the body with the fuel it needs to carry out its day-to-day functions," Chen said.

While our bodies require nutrition from a wide variety of food groups, studies have shown that plant foods - fruits, vegetables and herbs - nourish the body in ways that other foods cannot.

Chen explained that herbs and plant foods can build, renew, and cleanse the body, and that the healing power of plant foods comes from vital nutrients called phytochemicals.

There are many plant foods, such as cactus, mushrooms, grape seeds, ginseng berries and soy that contain these valuable nutrients.

With over 20 years of medical research behind her, Chen has dedicated her life to the study of the immune system and its relationship to a healthy diet.

In addition to her two-hour speech, Chen also introduced to the audience her book "Nutritional Immunology," which was published by the China Society Publishing House in May.

The book offers an understandable overview of the relationships between nutrition and the immune system and disease.

(China Daily  June 2, 2004)