a more nutritionally sound, versatile green. So do yourself a healthy favor and aim for a few ounces — raw, sauteed, or lightly steamed, every day. You can even add a handful of fresh spinach to your next fruit smoothie. It’ll change the color, but not the taste.
4. Onions
What: Onions have a bad reputation because of what they can do to your breath, but they still contain potent cancer-fighting enzymes and high levels of vitamin C.
Helps To Heal/Prevent: Prostate, esophageal and stomach cancer, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bone loss, airway inflammation, allergies, cold and flu symptoms, arthritis pain and swelling and bacterial/viral infections.
How Much: For all the health benefits onions provide, it would be ideal to eat one a day, particularly raw. However, if that’s not doable for you, add a few onions to your weekly grocery list and try to eat a little bit every day, especially shallots and yellow onions. By the way – cooking meat at high temperatures (such as on a grill) with onions can help reduce or counteract carcinogens produced by the meat.
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3. Cabbage
What: Cabbage is a powerhouse source of vitamins K and C. Just one cup supplies 91 percent of the recommended daily amount for vitamin K, 50 percent of vitamin C, good amounts of fiber, and decent scores of manganese, vitamin B6, folate, and more — and it’ll only cost you about 33 calories.
Helps To Heal/Prevent: Lung, colon, breast, ovarian, and bladder cancers, bone loss, allergic reactions, inflammation, gastrointestinal problems, ulcers, heart disorders, constipation, colds, whooping cough, depression and irritability, bedsores, varicose veins, and arthritis.
How Much: The more cabbage you can include in your diet, the better. Remember to use the whole cabbage, the red varieties are more nutritious than the white, and the outer leaves contain a third more calcium than the inner leaves. Try raw sauerkraut. It has all the health properties of cabbage, plus some potent probiotics, which are excellent for digestive health.
2. Broccoli
What: You’ll find it difficult to locate another single food source with as many naturally occurring health-promoting properties as broccoli. A single cup of steamed broccoli provides more than 200 percent of the RDA for vitamin C (more than oranges), nearly as much of vitamin K, and about half of the daily allowance for vitamin A, along with plentiful folate, fiber, sulfur, iron, B vitamins, and a whole host of other important nutrients. And it contains about twice the amount of protein as steak.
Helps To Heal/Prevent: Lung, esophageal, prostate, gastrointestinal, gastric, skin, breast, and cervical cancers, heart disease and eye inflammation.
How Much: If you can eat a little broccoli every day, your body will thank you for it. If you can’t swing it, aim to eat it as regularly as possible. Like many other vegetables, broccoli provides fantastic nutrition both in its raw form and when it’s properly cooked. Cooking reduces some of broccoli’s anticancer components, but lightly steaming it will preserve most of the nutrients.
1. Kale
What: Kale is in the same plant family as broccoli and cabbage, and, like its cruciferous cousins, it contains high levels of the cancer-fighting compound sulforaphane. It is highly nutritious, has powerful antioxidant properties, and is anti-inflammatory. One cup of cooked kale contains an astounding 1,328 percent of the RDA for vitamin K, 192 percent of the RDA for vitamin A, and 89 percent of the RDA for vitamin C. It’s also a good source of calcium and iron.
Helps To Heal/Prevent: Prostate, gastric, skin, cervical, colon and breast cancers, bone loss and lung congestion.
How Much: Like cabbage, the more kale you can eat, the better. A daily serving is ideal – it’s even a great addition to fruit smoothies or juiced with other vegetables. You can generally find it fresh at your local grocery or farmer’s market. In some areas, it’s available all year; in others, it only makes an appearance during summer and fall.
Remember: In addition to eating more of the right foods, as well as exercising more and stressing less, consulting with a doctor is still an essential step in condition/disease management.