Why everyone needs to eat more cruciferous greens

   "It has been estimated that by making modifications in the diet, more than two-thirds of human cancers could be prevented."  

Carcinogenesis vol. 28, no. 2 pp. 233-239, 2007 @ www.carcin.oxfordjournals.org

Green vegetables are the new super food!  Did you know that cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, kale, broccoli, bok choy, collards, Asian greens) have the most healing and cancer fighting properties of all the vegetables?  Spinach (which is not cruciferous) is another necessary green food of which we should all be eating more.  There are certainly other vegetables as well as powerful disease fighting herbs that do the same thing, but this topic is about greens.  Not only do greens fight cancer, but they can give our bodies the necessary nutrition to heal from many diseases when combined with a plant based diet.

What do greens do for our health?

• Sufficient nutrition - protein, calcium, fiber, minerals, vitamins, fatty acids, amino acids, phytosterols
• Health promoting and immune boosting lactobacillus bacteria for good gut flora (when eaten raw or fermented)
• Directly and indirectly influence most, if not all of the various mechanisms of apoptosis (cell suicide of cancer cells).  "Additionally, many of these dietary agents appear to exhibit some degree of specificity for neoplastic cells while sparing normal cells." (Carcinogenesis vol. 28 no. 2 pp. 233-239, 2007 Oxford Journals)
• Induction of apoptosis in lung tissue (Carcinogenesis vol. 28.)
• Detoxification of the liver through phase II (toxin conjugation system, assisting in  the elimination of toxins from the body) specifically when consuming broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. (Vol. 3 No. 3 JANA pg.21)
• Cancer inhibition via the carotenoids in greens.

Check out this great video by Sergei Boutenko who has a fantastic story of his family's restored health through "green smoothies".  Sergei uses a Vitamix to blend a large quantity of raw vegetables to make the nutritive values more absorbable and easier to consume.  Healing greens are the base component of all his smoothies.

So get out to your grocery store and pick up some green vegetables that you have never tried before.  Mix them in a salad, steam them, juice them or blend them in a Vitamix and start your journey toward health!  Eat from the cruciferous family everyday.

Did you know that the cruciferous family of vegetables emerges from the ground as a seedling with two heart shaped leaves?  Cruiciferous is so named because the blossoms of the plant have four CROSS shaped petals.  Maybe God created them that way to give us a clue about what to eat.