‘While eating a lot of vegetables every day could protect us from diseases, including cancer, eating red meat and processed foods reduces the benefits conferred by the vegetables we eat.’
SINCE man roamed the earth, vegetables have been hailed as a great health food. And even before modern science came out with the medical data proving their value, parents, especially mothers, around the world, from different cultures and traditions, had already been encouraging their children to eat vegetables, especially broccoli, kale, spinach, garlic, the multi-colored leafy veggies.
In this new era of health consciousness, vegetables have once again been thrust to the center stage, under the spotlight, not only as a great food item but one that has remarkable medical powers that bolster the immune system and prevent diseases, including cancers.
The researchers postulated that vegetables contain antioxidants that help the body repair the damage in the DNA caused by oxidative stress, which is one of the risk factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And eating vegetables at least three times a day, if combined with a healthy lifestyle that includes daily physical exercises, confers an even greater degree of immuno-protection. The antioxidants in vegetables also help neutralize the free radicals produced during exercise.
Di-indolylmethane (DIM) is a natural compound found in vegetables (like broccoli, cabbage, turnips, and mustard greens), which has not only been associated with cancer prevention but, more amazingly, with the potential ability to treat cancer. Obviously, more extensive laboratory studies and, later, clinical application in humans, are needed to validate this research observation.
While eating a lot of vegetables every day could protect us from diseases, including cancer, eating red meat and processed foods reduces the benefits conferred by the vegetables we eat. Besides being loaded with saturated fats and cholesterol, red meat and processed foods have also been implicated in the increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Fruits, especially berries, fiber, and nuts, also help in reducing our risk for cancer, and other major diseases.
Physical exercises play a major role in the prevention of cardiovascular/metabolic diseases, Alzheimer’s, and various cancers.
Man has always been searching for the formula for optimal health and longevity. The market is full of non-prescription herbal or “food supplement” pills, potions, and lotions, each claiming to be effective against a host of medical conditions, as preventive or as a “cure.” Not only are these items not approved by government sentinel agencies like the US FDA and the BFAD, they are cost prohibitive, ineffective, and potentially dangerous.
Manufacturing companies hide behind the legal technicality by marketing their products not as drugs but as herbals or “food supplements” to escape the stringent requirements, although their infomercials state that their “health” products “are effective for” a variety of medical illnesses. If they have pharmacologic (chemical) effects, then they should be considered as drugs, and be subject to the rigorous testing and clinical studies required for drugs, prior to their approval and acceptance as safe and effective for public consumption.
It is rather most unfortunate that governments appear to be simply powerless in dealing with the perpetrator companies and dealers and their unsubstantiated claims and deceptive practices, who are bilking the unsuspecting and ignorant victims of their hard-earned money.
Disease-inducing personal bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles include smoking, high cholesterol, high fat, high-carbohydrate diet, inactivity (lack of physical exercise), alcohol abuse, and poor stress management. These factors, which are really within our control, are responsible for about 75% of all diseases afflicting man.
Indeed, only 25% of these illnesses we have today are beyond our control. Most of our health problems are self-inflicted and self-induced, and therefore, preventable to a large extent.
Medical literature is replete with clinical outcomes that justify this caveat: Eating vegetables prevent diseases while regular consumption of red meat and processed foods is associated with an increased risk of debilitating and deadly illnesses, including cancer. Need we say more?
Isn’t it time to start loving our body and be proactive in protecting it to maximize our health and longevity?
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, newspaper columnist, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian foundation in the United States. He was a decorated recipient of the Indiana Sagamore of the Wabash Award in 1995, bestowed by the then Indiana Governor, later a Senator, and a presidential candidate, the honorable Evan Bayh. Other Sagamore past awardees include President Harry Truman, President George HW Bush, Muhammad Ali, Astronaut Gus Grissom, etc. (Wikipedia). Websites: FUN8888.com, Today.SPSAtoday.com, and philipSchua.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com
