While you’re maximizing your menu for health, consider adding these foods and drinks, which also have surprising benefits. Shiitake Mushrooms fights STDs. Photo by Martin_jacobs/Getty Images Not only are these mushrooms full of fiber and vitamin B6, but a compound they contain may help eradicate stubborn HPV virus from infected tissues, according to a new study from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston Medical School. The results are preliminary, but it can’t hurt to add these tasty fungi to your dinner in the meantime. Cheese prevents cavities. Break out the crackers! Cheese can protect teeth against cavities, according to a study from the Academy of General Dentistry. Compounds found in cheese may fortify tooth enamel, preventing mineral loss and shielding teeth from the harmful acids that can cause decay. There’s no specific dose for pearly white protection, but at least now you can justify indulging. MORE: 25 Foods Your Dentist Won’t Eat Bell peppers protect against Parkinson’s.Eating peppers, which hail from the same botanical family as tobacco, may reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease by as much as 30%, per a study by the University of Washington School of Public Health. Researchers investigated peppers based on the odd finding that tobacco users have about half the risk of developing Parkinson’s. Instead of taking up smoking (the horror), aim to eat bell peppers two to four times a week. Root vegetables fight diabetes.While pounding all kinds of fruits and veggies will help ward off disease, root vegetables in particular—including carrots, radishes, salsify, beets, turnips, celeriac, and rutabaga—can cut diabetes risk, according to an analysis of over 16,000 people across eight European countries. The magic ingredients are antioxidants, which reduce oxidative stress, and nitrates, known for lowering blood pressure. Strawberries lower cholesterol. After eating a sh*t ton of strawberries—8 cups!—every day for a month, participants’ LDL (bad) cholesterol plunged by 20%, according to a 2014 study in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. Scientists credit the effects to anthocyanins, the pigments that lend strawberries their red color, plus their payload of antioxidants and other nutrients. MORE: 10 Foods Proven To Make You Happy As A Clam
