HEALTH IMPACT OF CITRUS AND BERRY FRUITS

In the last decade, great efforts have been made to assess the health benefits of fruits and fruit juices. The health virtues of fruits have been attributed to a series of phytochemicals, among them vitamins, polyphenols, carotenoids have been the most studied. Many studies are being published, among them clinical studies are becoming more numerous and start to provide some understanding; they seem to show that most beneficial effects of fruit phytochemicals appear to be associated with chronic diseases: cardiovascular diseases (CVD) metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and type2 diabetes, osteoporosis, dementia and some forms of cancer. Although great progress has been made our knowledge of the effects of fruits, juices on health is still very fragmentary.