The wonders of dark green leafies.
The Healthiest Vegetables
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What else is in plant foods that’s good for us, besides the fiber, lignans, and isoflavones? Well, there’s a wonderful phytonutrient in broccoli that we think accounts for much of its cancer-fighting effects. This was done in a Petri dish this year. Cells exposed to carcinogens, essentially just had broccoli dripped on them, and that alone protected their DNA from being mutated. Some new wonder drug? No. Broccoli. There’s another phytonutrient in broccoli that may reduce our fatal heart attack risk by a third. Once again, a reminder to eat our greens. Our hamster, Golda, was a great greens-eating role model for the whole family. But greens are more than just broccoli, or those three spinach leaves. it doesn’t have to be broccoli—all greens have wonderful effects on us. Just to emphasize the point: “The Antioxidant, Antimutagenic, and Antitumor Effects of Pine Needles.” Greens are greens—even when they’re long and skinny.
As General Washington ordered, even wild greens—but you have to know what you’re eating. Once upon a time, a young vegan was looking for this plant, but instead picked this plant. So instead of having a nice cup of tea, he had a nice cup of poisonous foxglove. Hence, the article this year in the International Journal of Cardiology: “An unusual case of atrioventricular heart block in a young vegan.” They conclude in the article that should a vegan present in the emergency room with heart block, ask them what weeds they’ve been eating.
So, okay, not ALL green leafies are good for us, but as long as we stay away from foxglove, hemlock, the tobacco leaf, and a few other leaves I could mention…
The next villain on the lung cancer battlefield? Yes, from a cancer perspective, smoking a single marijuana joint is equivalent to smoking an entire pack of cigarettes.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- S. S. Murugan, P. Balakrishnamurthy, and Y. J. Mathew. Antimutagenic effect of broccoli flower head by the ames salmonella reverse mutation assay. Phytother Res, 21(6):545-547, 2007.
- Lin J, Rexrode KM, Hu F, Albert CM, Chae CU, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE. Dietary intakes of flavonols and flavones and coronary heart disease in US women. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Jun 1;165(11):1305-13. Epub 2007 Mar 22.
- Kwak CS, Moon SC, Lee MS. Antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor effects of pine needles (Pinus densiflora). Nutr Cancer. 2006;56(2):162-71.
- T. Lockie, M. Willcocks, and D. Harrington. An unusual case of atrioventricular heart block in a young vegan. Int. J. Cardiol., 125(1):-12, 2008.
- S. Aldington, M. Harwood, B. Cox, M. Weatherall, L. Beckert, A. Hansell, A. Pritchard, G. Robinson, and R. Beasley. Cannabis use and risk of lung cancer: A case-control study. Eur. Respir. J., 31(2):280{286, 2008.
Image thanks to Yvon via Flickr.
What else is in plant foods that’s good for us, besides the fiber, lignans, and isoflavones? Well, there’s a wonderful phytonutrient in broccoli that we think accounts for much of its cancer-fighting effects. This was done in a Petri dish this year. Cells exposed to carcinogens, essentially just had broccoli dripped on them, and that alone protected their DNA from being mutated. Some new wonder drug? No. Broccoli. There’s another phytonutrient in broccoli that may reduce our fatal heart attack risk by a third. Once again, a reminder to eat our greens. Our hamster, Golda, was a great greens-eating role model for the whole family. But greens are more than just broccoli, or those three spinach leaves. it doesn’t have to be broccoli—all greens have wonderful effects on us. Just to emphasize the point: “The Antioxidant, Antimutagenic, and Antitumor Effects of Pine Needles.” Greens are greens—even when they’re long and skinny.
As General Washington ordered, even wild greens—but you have to know what you’re eating. Once upon a time, a young vegan was looking for this plant, but instead picked this plant. So instead of having a nice cup of tea, he had a nice cup of poisonous foxglove. Hence, the article this year in the International Journal of Cardiology: “An unusual case of atrioventricular heart block in a young vegan.” They conclude in the article that should a vegan present in the emergency room with heart block, ask them what weeds they’ve been eating.
So, okay, not ALL green leafies are good for us, but as long as we stay away from foxglove, hemlock, the tobacco leaf, and a few other leaves I could mention…
The next villain on the lung cancer battlefield? Yes, from a cancer perspective, smoking a single marijuana joint is equivalent to smoking an entire pack of cigarettes.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- S. S. Murugan, P. Balakrishnamurthy, and Y. J. Mathew. Antimutagenic effect of broccoli flower head by the ames salmonella reverse mutation assay. Phytother Res, 21(6):545-547, 2007.
- Lin J, Rexrode KM, Hu F, Albert CM, Chae CU, Rimm EB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE. Dietary intakes of flavonols and flavones and coronary heart disease in US women. Am J Epidemiol. 2007 Jun 1;165(11):1305-13. Epub 2007 Mar 22.
- Kwak CS, Moon SC, Lee MS. Antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor effects of pine needles (Pinus densiflora). Nutr Cancer. 2006;56(2):162-71.
- T. Lockie, M. Willcocks, and D. Harrington. An unusual case of atrioventricular heart block in a young vegan. Int. J. Cardiol., 125(1):-12, 2008.
- S. Aldington, M. Harwood, B. Cox, M. Weatherall, L. Beckert, A. Hansell, A. Pritchard, G. Robinson, and R. Beasley. Cannabis use and risk of lung cancer: A case-control study. Eur. Respir. J., 31(2):280{286, 2008.
Image thanks to Yvon via Flickr.
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Title
The Healthiest Vegetables
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
More on how phytonutrients in plant foods keep us healthy:
- Which Vegetable Binds Bile Best?
- Cooked Beans or Sprouted Beans?
- Phytochemicals: The Nutrition Facts Missing From the Label
And on the mighty flavonoid family of phytonutrients:
- Cancer, Interrupted: Garlic & Flavonoids
- Fat Burning Via Flavonoids
- Anti-Angiogenesis: Cutting Off Tumor Supply Lines
And check out my other videos on greens.
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Breast Cancer Stem Cells vs. Broccoli and Fighting Inflammation with Food Synergy.
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