1 Great Day

Are frozen vegetables processed food?

2013-09-04T13:30:00.000-04:00

The answer is Yes.

Frozen vegetables are processed through the following steps (Ref 1):

Harvest - Factory receiving and quality checks - Sifting and Washing - Blanching - Freezing - Weighing and Bagging - Quality Control - Delivery

The current industry standard of blanching is set at 86ºC. Take an example of broccoli. Blanching practically kills enzyme myrosinase, which is necessary to form sulforaphane, one of the powerful cancer-preventive compounds in broccoli.

However, Illinois scientists (Ref 2) suggest either lowering the temperature to 76ºC or adding 0.25 percent of Daikon radish on the frozen broccoli. The first remedy help preserve 82% of the enzyme. And the second one works by adding the enzyme myrosinase from Daikon radish onto the frozen broccoli to form sulforaphane.

In addition to Daikon radish, cabbage, arugula, watercress, horseradish also contain myrosinase. So sprinkle a tiny amount of these raw vegetables to frozen cooked broccoli and you will still get the cancer fighting phytochemical sulforaphane.

Purslane, weed, food or medicine?

2013-08-18T19:14:00.001-04:00

I have tried to grow a garden in Salinas of Santa Elena in Ecuador recently. It never occurred to me that it would be that difficult. The temperature is perfect for growing things, around 25 degree Celsius and I water them everyday. However, the ground is extremely salty, as the house sits ocean front. In addition, Salinas, meaning saltworks in Spanish, has been farming salt for many years, thus making it even more salty than other ocean front places.

However, there is one weed that grows extremely well. Even though I plug out some everyday, I just cannot keep up with their growth.

Now I am back in Canada, spending too much time on the internet. I came across some articles regarding edible weeds. Voila, the weed that bothered me so much is called purslane (Verdolaga in Spanish, Portulaca oleracea in Latin) and packed with nutrition. So next time I am in my house in Salinas, instead of trying to eliminate them, I will just eat the weed.

Nutrients and medicinal properties:

1. Purslane contains more omega 3 fatty acids (in the form of alpha-linolenic acid) than any other leafy plant.

2. The two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betananthins (noticeable in the flowers and the slight yellowish tint of the leaves), have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies (a good review of natural antimutagenes can be found here).

3. It is a good source of vitamins and dietary minerals, especially vitamin A, C, E and magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron.

4. Could be a good candidate for anti-aging research, as it contains dopamine and DOPA. Betacyanins isolated from Purslane improved cognition in aged mice.

Harvesting:

The last inch or two of the leafy stem will be the most tender. When stressed by drought, which is where they are in my garden under normal circumstance, purslane switches to a different photosynthesis pathway: the leaves trap carbon dioxide at night and convert them into malic acid (the sour taste of the apple). Under the sun, malic acid is converted into glucose. So when you harvest early in the morning, the leaves are significantly more tangy than harvest in the late afternoon, which have more glucose.

How to eat purslane?

1. Add them in salads

2. Stir fry them with chicken, pork or shrimp

3.Use them as garnish in ceviche

4. Cook them in a soup

I cannot wait to try them.

Air pollution or eating wheat significantly shortened life expectancy?

2013-07-14T00:23:00.001-04:00

A recent study linked air pollution to shorten life expectancy. It is probably true except that I found the argument very weak. The authors used data from China and found that the life expectancy is five and half years shorter in the north than in the south. And it argued that for decades (1950 to 1980), a government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north; researchers found no other government policies that treated China’s north differently from the south; therefore, air pollution must have been the culprit.

However, the authors did not mention that the same policy in the same period also provided rice for the south and wheat for the north as the main staple of food. I am quite surprised that nobody told the authors since anyone who lived in China during that period should have known. I left China in 1988 and for every month since I was an adult, I collected about 10 kilos of rice per month (government issued ration coupon). Since I could not eat that much rice a month, I used to exchange the coupon for eggs in the black market. People in the north got about the same amount in wheat flour. It is true, there was very little migration as the authors stated, since migration was strictly controlled.

In addition to government policy, the eating habit was very different as well. There was very little availability of green leafy vegetables in the north. There were other vegetables, such as Napa cabbages, eggplants, carrots etc., but almost no green leafy vegetables.

I am sure air pollution poses health risks. However, I could have used exactly the same data from China and concluded that eating wheat or not eating green leafy vegetables shorten life expectancy.

Interesting Articles recently

2013-06-18T13:03:00.003-04:00

1. Herbal extract from Rhodiola rosea boosts fruit fly lifespan by nearly 25% and it promotes longevity separately from dietary restriction. (here)
2. Testosterone improves verbal learning and memory in postmenopausal woman. The test was done using LibiGel, BioSante Pharmaceuticals or a placebo applied to the upper arm for 26 weeks. (here)
3. Osteoporosis drug stops growth of breast cancer cells, even in resistant tumors. (here)
4. Blocking overactive receptor in Alzheimer’s recovers memory loss and more. (here)
5. Artificial Sweetener "mannitol" a Potential Treatment for Parkinson's Disease. (here)
6. Ten breakthrough technologies of 2013 according to MIT Technology review. (here)

Bill Gross's take on "Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff."

2013-03-19T14:09:00.000-04:00

"Remember just two things," an old friend once told me while I was struggling with a host of seemingly insurmountable problems. "One: Don't sweat the small stuff. Two: It's all small stuff." His advice produced an instant guffaw that soothed my short-term pain, but over the years it had become a source of serious personal reflection. There's a wallop packed into those two sentences that could keep philosophers or a slew of radio talk-show hosts busy for years. If it's all "small stuff" and life is but a dream, as the last line of the old song maintains, lots of gentle rowing is probably a great way to proceed down life's little brook. If, however, there's lots of small stuff and several big things, the pace quickens and a certain intensity is required. The trick, of course, is to determine what the big stuff might be and to recognize it when you you see it-not necessarily an easy task for anyone who seriously ponders the meaning and ultimate outcome of existence.

I have concluded, as you may have guessed, that there's both a lot of small stuff in this world that shouldn't raise a sweat and a few very big things that demand focus and constant attention. What's intriguing and somewhat frustrating, however, is how relative and mercurial even those big things can be as you move down the stream. Breaking up with your teenage girlfriend was certainly very big stuff at seventeen, but it hardly causes a ripple in the memory bank a decade later as you settle into marriage and family building. Failing to get a promotion or that new job was a crushing blow in your thirties, but twenty years later is written off as perhaps having been for the best. A wife's or husband's extramarital affair may have nearly brought a marriage to the brink of divorce, but failing health and the need for companionship as one approaches 60 relegate the incident to the category of "just one of those things." Over time, a lot of big stuff becomes smaller stuff, and in a way my friend's classic two liner makes sense. Maybe it is all small stuff!

But no, that cannot be right. Life has no meaning if it's just a series of historical events that quickly lose their significance. What's wrong with the above analysis is that those events should never have been considered big stuff in the first place. The big stuff, aside from life's inevitable tragedies, is really the delicate, almost imperceptible fabric of feelings, thoughts, and actions that form the total of one's life. It has less to do with event - what things happen to people - than it does with behavior - how we react to them. It's not about individual successes and failures, but how you play the game. Do you deal with people fairly, with kindness, with at least a modicum of selflessness, acknowledging a world outside your own existence? Do you come to peace with your maker and approach life's final harbor with hope for an infinite future? Or can you at least look back with some pride how you rowed your boat down this earthly stream that flows to a most uncertain shore? That's the big stuff. The rest, in retrospect, is really not worth your sweat.

Is a Calorie a Calorie?

2012-09-29T16:07:00.003-04:00

I came upon an interesting article "Is a Calorie a Calorie?" written by Malden Nesheim and Marion Nestle today. I agree with everything they say except their conclusion. To me, a calorie is not a calorie if the source of the calorie differs. A calorie from plant-based whole food might be less or more than a calorie as compared to a calorie from processed food.

Plant based whole foods (whole grains, fruits, nuts, legumes and vegetables) all contain cellulose, a structural component of the primary cell wall, often referred to as dietary fiber. The energy (carbohydrate, fat and protein) is contained inside the cell wall. Cooking breaks down most cell walls and releases the energy we consume. We also digest cellulose with the aid of gut microflora, and the extent of digestion varies from one individual to the next (here). The energy produced are shared between us and our gut flora and not counted as Calorie. Most of the cellulose, or dietary fiber, acts as a hydrophilic bulking agent for feces. In other words, most cellulose is not digested, therefore, not counted as Calorie.

On the other hand, as argued in the above mentioned article, "But certain foods, again, retain some of their calories as they pass through our gut. For example, the fat in almonds and certain other nuts is incompletely digested. In a 2012 study, USDA scientist Janet Novotny and her colleagues found that the measured energy content of a 28-gram serving of almonds was actually 32 percent less than the Atwater values estimate." Is it because of the cellulose in almonds that makes it difficult for us to get all the energy content or is it because it costs a lot of energy to digest almonds? I do not know. I agree with the above author and a calorie is a calorie if you compare low carb diet to low fat diet and strictly in relation to weight gain or loss. But I do believe there is a huge difference between 1000 Calorie from refined pure starch and 1000 Calorie from mixed portion of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. We are still comparing carbohydrates to carbohydrates. If you want to compare fat, 1000 Calorie from pure fat/ oil is very different from 1000 Calorie taken from nuts. Whole foods are harder to digest, therefore, either we lose some Calorie because we could not get at them or because it costs more energy to digest them. In addition, whole foods contain vitamins/ minerals/ phytochemicals and fiber etc. that are beneficial to our health.

Obesity in itself is not a disease. As a matter of fact, about25% of obese people are healthy. Eating less is good, but eating well is better. Since we have to teach people how to eat healthy, we might as well teach the whole shebang.

Telling people including myself to eat less never works. We have such abundance of food available to us and a good appetite is healthy. It is only human to want to eat. But we can slowly trick ourselves into eating habits in a way that even though we are eating a large volume, we actually do not consume excessive Calorie. So in our house, we eat vegetable soups often. We snack on raw fruits and nuts. We never consume sugary drinks (including fruit juices). I personally believe there is nothing healthy about processed fruit juices. Once you get used to eating healthy, your body no longer craves for junk food.

Teresa Amabile on Track Your Small Wins to Motivte Big Accomplishments

2012-09-25T12:56:00.000-04:00

Watched Teresa Amabile on "Track Your Small Wins to Motivate Big Accomplishments" today via 99u.com

Not only her advice is sound and useful. I am re-posting this video mostly for using her as an inspiration for physical and mental fitness to look forward to when women progress with age. According to wiki, she was born in 1949/1950, so she is in her early 60s.

Another excuse to be a beach bum

2012-09-20T20:32:00.002-04:00

Research carried out at The University of Manchester has found hypertonic solution, which is a solution with an elevated concentration of salt, can ease inflammation purely through bathing in it (read the abstract here). Of course, the ocean is a perfect hypertonic solution. Another excuse to be a beach bum.

Drinking cranberry juice may help lower blood pressure

2012-09-20T20:18:00.003-04:00

In this article, researchers demonstrate that drinking low-calorie cranberry juice may help lower your blood pressure. There are two issues I would like to point out in this study.

One, the subjects are all healthy, i.e. they do not suffer hypertension.

Two, I would not call dropping of blood pressure values from an average of 121/73 mmHg to 118/70 mmHg significant. I can do better than that with only 10 minutes meditation. With one hour gardening, I can almost always drop my blood pressure from borderline high (just below 140/90 to below 130/85).

Criticism aside, I still think it is a good idea to drink cranberry juice (only the ones you make yourself with a juicer). Nobody really knows how much antioxidant is left with processed juice (check out how orange juice is made). Processed means all of the ready-made juices bought from the store.

What is the real cost of dry weather? Depends on where you live

2012-09-14T00:56:00.004-04:00

It seems like we here in Montreal have something in common with Texas this year. Dry weather causes homes in both Montreal and Texas to sink.

The only difference is the cost to repair it. It costs $3,000 to $10,000 in Texas (here). Here in Montreal, it costs $50,000 to $100,000 (here).

Amazing time lapsed video by Henry Jun Wah Lee

2012-08-30T14:39:00.001-04:00

The Gorgeous 'Mystery Film Experiment' From Icelandic Group Sigur Rós by Henry Jun Wah Lee

Tofu

2012-06-06T14:28:00.000-04:00

Tofu is made by coagulating soymilk. It has been eaten for its high protein content for at least two thousand years in Asia. It is popular among vegetarians for the completeness of soy protein (it is the only plant protein that contains all the essential amino acid for humans).

Even though the health benefits of tofu consumption are controversial, researchers have shown that tofu intake reduces cancer risk.

The amount of tofu necessary to protect against cancer

is <1 serving, or 228 g (1 cup)/day compared with infrequent

consumption.

The health benefit of eating tofu might be due to the presence of BBI (Bowman-Birk inhibitors) and their variants, which are a class of naturally-occurring protease inhibitors. BBI has shown to stop breast cancercells from dividing in a laboratory dish. It may also have anti-inflammatory properties.

In addition to soybeans, BBI and their variants are found in other legumes such as mung bean, lentil, pea and chickpea etc.

Roger McNamee's talk regarding tech investing

2011-12-30T17:02:00.001-05:00

Elevation Partners Director and Co-Founder Roger McNamee from The Paley Center For Media on FORA.tv

Gender differences in cancer risks

2011-12-09T19:36:00.001-05:00

In this bbc report on cancer risks, women and men are put in different category:

I consider this a progress. Next level of differences are in different ethnic groups. And once we have all our genomes sequences, we shall know our risks by genome types.

However, everything is a leap of faith. So take the report as true if you are willing to believe in today's statistical method. Otherwise, disregard it and go on living your way of life, whatever it might be.

Idler's Quotes

2011-12-06T20:08:00.001-05:00

There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry ... Yesterday and Tomorrow. - Robert Jones Burdette

Once awhile I become motivated and energetic. I usually just sit down and watch them pass by. - Author Unknown

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. - Mark Twain

Rule number one is, don't sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it's all small stuff. - Robert Eliot

Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. - Hans Christian Anderson

Truth vs. Usefulness

2011-12-02T19:24:00.001-05:00

I love this essay "The Truth Wears Off" by Jonah Lehrer published by New Yorker.

People often equate truth with usefulness, perhaps because we are in America. If we take the view of William James' Pragmatic theory of truth, then perhaps usefulness is the truth.

We often apply ideas we commonly agree as useful, but we do not know for certain what the reason is. For example, "we feel better and are more energized when we spend time outdoors." Is this truth or merely usefulness?

"The truth of an idea is not a permanent property and it does not lie in it. The truth happens to an idea" (William James).

We are in an era of ideas (truths) overload. Some ideas are very true to some people (such as Seth Roberts "Effect of One-Legged Standing on Sleep"), but may seem ridiculous to others. I do not doubt that Seth Roberts one legged standing works for him to achieve better sleep, but many other methods may work just as well.

Focus was important for productivity in the past. It is perhaps essential today, otherwise we will all get lost in the piles of "truths" google search provide us.

Quotes from Lin Yutang

2011-12-02T16:38:00.001-05:00

Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer and philosopher (here is his wiki page), who wrote mostly in English. A few of Lin Yutang quotes:

If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.

The wise man reads both books and life itself.

Good life consists of a Chinese cook, a Japanese wife and a French lover.

A speech is like a woman’s skirt, the shorter the better.

cross published on instead-of-wishing.

Garden Dwellers

2011-12-01T17:13:00.001-05:00

I am a garden dweller. We have a very small city garden, which is good enough to do some gardening. The river front city park is 5 minutes walk from my home. We consider that a big garden to walk in.

It is known that we feel better and are more energized when we spend time outdoors.

Recent Science Daily News reports:

In recent years, numerous experimental psychology studies have linked exposure to nature with increased energy and heightened sense of well-being. For example, research has shown that people on wilderness excursions report feeling more alive and that just recalling outdoor experiences increases feelings of happiness and health. Other studies suggest that the very presence of nature helps to ward off feelings of exhaustion and that 90 percent of people report increased energy when placed in outdoor activities.

To read the article, click the link here.

I myself experience that gardening is by far the best way to lower blood pressure naturally. Whenever I have reading of bp 135/85, after spending one hour in the garden weeding or dead heading, the reading is almost guaranteed to go below 120/80. Hot and sunny days are the best.

Why do we feel better spending time outdoors? I think the sun, green plants and physical activity are the reasons.

Most people equate the sun to Vitamin D level in our body, but I think it is more than that. On a grey day, regardless how much Vitamin D we take, my mood always goes down.

Germaine Greer in her book "The Change" writes that a garden is the best alternative therapy for women going through change. "Though low back pain and gardening go together, gardeners feel much better for gardening, back pain and all. The effect is so like the "mental tonic" effect of HRT that we may be justified in suspecting that there are volatile estrogens in living plants that do not survive in treated plant material."

To improve the mood, walking outdoors is just as good.

Unfortunately, Montreal gets cold fast. By November I feel too cold to go out walking. Creating an indoor garden with grow lights is to experiment whether we can experience some of the aliveness we feel outdoors.

House plants that clean indoor air

2011-11-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

Last year we had the goal to place more houseplants for the purpose of cleaning the indoor air. We had 13 in total and they are:

3 mother in law's tongue

1 English ivy (Hedera helix)
6 Money Plants (Epipremnum aureum)
1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus
1 Madagascar jasmine

Unfortunately, after three months staying in a transparent plastic bag (the idea is to put the plants in a micro bio-dome so they recycle water, oxygen and carbon dioxide), only the following plants survived:

1 mother in law's tongue

1 English ivy
5 Money Plants
1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus

70% survival rate is not all that bad. However, the ones doing good are only English ivy and money plants.

So we added 2 more English ivy (one with broader leaves) and Money plants respectively. We are trying new plants such as Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum), Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina/ Zebrina pendula), Money Tree plant (Pachira aquatica), Arabian Wax Cissus (Cissus rotundifolia), Angel Wing begonia and Silver spotted philodendron (Scindapsus picta 'Argyraeus')

3 English ivy

3 Wandering Jew

1 Spider plants
8 Money Plants
1 Money Tree plant

1 Arabian Wax Cissus

1 Angel Wing begonia

1 Silver spotted philodendron

1 mother in law's tongue

1 peace lily
1 Christmas cactus

All in all, we have 22 house plants in total, plus a few cuttings growing in water in jars. English Ivy, wandering Jew, angel wing begonia and money plant can all grow in the water.

This year we are not using humidifier. With more house plants and hang-drying the laundry, the air humidity seems to be quite balanced.

I breathe much better this fall/winter. Usually starting end of August until May, I have hard time breathing. This year, I gave in and started using Nasonex occasionally. So I am not sure whether the effect comes from Nasonex or from more house plants or both. One thing that is sure is that having green inside the house helps brighten up mood on a grey day.

What's for lunch?

2011-11-28T13:55:00.001-05:00

What we ate for lunch this year has changed as compared to last year (here). We are now eating soup for lunch.

What typically in our soup is as follows:

Mung bean (pre-cooked)
Tofu

Potatoes (one medium or two small ones)

Carrots

Sweet potatoes (half of large or one small)

Green vegetables (variables among broccoli, zucchini, Chinese mustard green, sweet pepper).

Soup is cooked without any salt. Miso is added for flavour and to populate gut flora.

Soup is eaten with half of avocado each.

Think twice before you accept your doctor's advice

2011-10-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

Canadians are often proud of their public Medicare system as compared to the U.S. by citing that the average longevity is higher here than down south. However, I often hold the view that we live longer because we do not get the Medicare our neighbours get due to rationing. So it is like a forced clinical inertia. I had not gone to a clinic for 8 years until last year. The clinical experience of last year was so bad, I will probably forgo another 8 years.

It is good to see that I was not alone. The NYtimes has published an article titled when doing nothing is best medicine. In this article, Doctor Danielle Ofri quoted an essay published in The Journal of the American Medical Association called “Clinical Inertia as a Clinical Safeguard”. The authors postulated that doctors who tend toward inertia might actually benefit their patients by protecting them from overzealous medical intervention.

They focused on three common medical conditions — diabetes, elevated cholesterol and hypertension — for which there are established clinical guidelines for doctors to follow and “quality measures” that evaluate medical care. For all three illnesses, “lower is better” is the dominant mantra.

But while “lower is better” is probably true for large populations, that is not always the case for individual patients. In fact, there are some clinical trials in which aggressively lowered blood sugar or blood pressure has been associated with higher rates of dying.

One of my brothers is a doctor. He says that medicine today is still only 20% science and 80% art. However, most doctors come off as if they think medicine is 100% science. If you have symptom, we must find it and treat it. Of course, every “thing” a doctor does also has side effects.

Unfortunately, every action we do towards health, such as changing diet, choosing exercise programs or deciding whether to take supplements or not, we are all advised to consult our physicians before hand. I guess we should just forgo this advice?

What we ate as compared to what average Americans ate

2011-09-11T13:14:00.000-04:00

In January, I wrote down what we ate in 2010 as compared to average Canadian (here):

Here is some data as compared to average American (Source):

Revisiting Midlife Crisis

2011-07-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

Almost two years after declaring that my midlife crisis was almost over (On Midlife Crisis), I realized that it is far from over. I am perhaps in the midst of it.

Yesterday, the massacre in Norway, the passing of Amy Winehouse, the continuation of extreme heat and something MrD said that I perceived to be mean, all of a sudden, I felt this extreme sadness that I could not shake off and I started to cry.

The sensation and feeling of your body's decline is reminding us everyday that we are marching towards death. The realization that death is not a single event, but is the accumulation of all small deteriorations only intensifies the sadness. We are dying bit by bit. The integrity of your system is falling apart slowly. Some people do not want to participate in this type of death. Some one I know said "I am not afraid of death, but of suffering." She died within a month at the age of 43. Amy Winehouse and those of 27 Club probably belong to this group of not wanting to participate in suffering.

On the other hand, nothing else has changed. Food still tastes delicious. Flowers are beautiful. Midnight walk along the river is enormously enjoyable. Human goodness are seen everywhere.

It is normal to question one's existence once in a blue moon. I am sure Rachel Haywire was questioning her existence when she compiled "10 Reasons to Live".

Get over the sadness and Get on with life.

Memory crash in your brain?

2011-07-02T12:29:00.001-04:00

A woman cannot remember where she parked her car at a Costco parking lot. That part of her memory has just crashed. She is now getting quite angry at herself. She has a cart full of stuff she bought. She knew that she came by car and she knew the look of her car. She is a middle aged woman.

My husband said that young people are not smarter. But they know that they are not smart enough to remember where they park so they use smart phones and their apps to find their parked cars.

I still do not have a smart phone. Actually I do not have a cell phone here in Canada. I have one whenever I am in China. I live 9 months in Canada and 3 months in China. The reason I have a cell phone in China is probably because I feel less secure there. Eventually, I may need a smart phone not for the need of phone conversations, but for the need of their apps.

But for now, I am using whatever knowledge that is available today to keep my mind alert, my neurons least damaged. There are not a lot of different things one can do. But the ones we know we should do are difficult to follow everyday.

1. Cardio Exercise. Any thing that is good for the cardiovascular system is good for the brain. Your brain needs to be supplied with blood all the time. Cardio exercise cuts down the risk of having a stroke.

2. Neurobic Exercise. Mental exercises designed to keep brains more alert. Get out of your auto-pilot mode and get into the mindful mode.

3. Eat less. Constantly keep your stomach full is definitely not good for your brain. When we eat too much, we get sleepy.

Cruciferous Vegetables and Cancer

2011-06-09T22:49:00.004-04:00

Cruciferous vegetables are considered to be healthy foods. There are numerous cultivars including broccoli, cauliflowers, bok choy, Chinese broccoli, kale, napa, brussels sprouts, radish, mustard, cress, rutabaga, cabbage etc. Basically all the vegetables a kid does not like. We have been told to eat them by our grandmothers, parents, scientists, pretty much everybody. I did not like any vegetables as a child and remember being forced to drink the juice of bok choy as a punishment because I refused to eat vegetables.

Eventually I started to like vegetables. Now I love them, or at least some of them. I still do not like rutabaga and cabbage, but I tolerate them.

These vegetables are high in Vitamin C, fiber and phytochemicals that are potentially anticancer. One of the phytochemicals is sulforaphane, which was shown by this recent study to specifically targeting cancer cells and kill them while leaving healthy prostate cells unaffected. It kills bacterial caused of ulcers and stomach cancer. Sulforaphane has even been shown to inhibit the occurrence of hereditary colon cancer (here). Need more reasons to eat vegetables? Eating cruciferous vegetables might even guard against arthritis (here).

The American Cancer Society estimates that more than two-thirds of cancer may be prevented through lifestyle modification, and nearly one-third of these cancer occurrences can be attributed to diet alone.

However, lifestyle modification needs to be radical in order for us to achieve our goal.

I have lowered my blood pressure through radical lifestyle change from stage 1 hypertension/ prehypertension to now prehypertention/ desirable within one week (i.e. my blood pressure went hovering around 140-150/90-100 to now hovering around 115-129/75-89 (not from eating cruciferous vegetables). This is another subject.