Let Food Be Thy Medicine

This month's newsletter from Dr. Fuhrman (sign up here if you're interested) arrived in my inbox this week and gave me the impetus for this MM update. His subject for November was "Anti-Cancer Foods: Cruciferous Vegetables," which harkens back to his previous column on their importance in fighting breast cancer. It also reminded me of this recent article from Mother Jones magazine entitled "Can Eating Your Veggies Save You From Cancer?" The subject was a recent study which reviewed the scientific literature and revealed 40 plant-based compounds that "switch on" genes which suppress cancer metastasis. 

Great articles both - which put me in mind of another recent piece in Science Daily called "Plant-Based Diets Can Remedy Chronic Diseases." The focus here was on how certain "bioactive compounds in plant foods play a role in controlling genetic and other biological factors that lead to chronic disease." Fascinating stuff! And all this talk of prevention and disease-fighting and suppression and controlling put me in mind of that famous, not-so-recent quotation from Hippocrates, father of Western Medicine: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." 

Maybe the answer to all our problems with chronic diseases has been with us all along. And maybe George Carlin had it right when he humourously opined"Broccoli kills cancer... cauliflower, too. Cauliflower kills the really big cancers. The ones you can see through clothing from across the street. Broccoli kills the little ones. The ones that are slowly eating you away from inside..."  How right he was after all! Eat your vegetables, particularly the cruciferous ones, for all your disease-fighting needs.

One thing leads to another, which bumps up against yet another in a kind of mental croquet, which finally leads me to this week's recipe, which is plant-based, gluten-free and filled with anti-oxidants and other great disease-fighting compounds. It is also another example of great Indian food - one of my favourite cuisines, and that reminded me that this very month, the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine began offering "Kickstart India: 21 Days of Vegan Recipes and Cooking Demos." If you are a fellow fan of Indian food, you should sign yourself up to receive these recipes.

See you next Monday!

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