Can a Pill Offer the Same Benefits as Broccoli?

A cancer-fighting "broccoli pill" is undergoing testing and may soon be brought to the market. The pill, which is being suggested as a treatment for brain hemorrhage, cancer, and arthritis, claims to offer the equivalent of eating 5.5 pounds of broccoli a day.

May 18, 2015

Story at-a-glance

• The so-called “broccoli pill” (Sulforadex) consists of a stabilized, synthetic form of sulforaphane
• Sulforaphane may help to lower the risk of cancer, slow cancer growth and stop its spread
• One of the best ways to maximize sulforaphane in broccoli is to steam it lightly for three to four minutes until it’s tough-tender
• Broccoli sprouts also offer a particularly concentrated source of phytochemicals, including sulforaphane

By Dr. Mercola

One of broccoli's claims to fame is sulforaphane, an organic sulfur compound found in cruciferous vegetables, including not only broccoli but also Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, horseradish, and arugula. Broccoli sprouts are actually the richest source.

Sulforaphane has been shown to have antimicrobial properties, and it also kills cancer stem cells, which slows tumor growth. This sulfur compound also normalizes DNA methylation, which plays a role in a number of diseases, including hypertension, kidney function, gut health, and cancer.

Sulforaphane also increases enzymes in your liver that help destroy cancer-causing chemicals you may consume or be exposed to in your environment. This compound has even been called "one of the most powerful anticarcinogens found in food."1

Hoping to cash in on some of these valuable properties, researchers have succeeded in putting sulforaphane into a pill… but is it as good for you as eating real broccoli?

Sulforaphane Pill a 'Game Changer' in the War Against Cancer?

Drug company Evgen has developed the so-called "broccoli pill" (Sulforadex), which consists of a stabilized form of sulforaphane. Ordinarily, sulforaphane is highly unstable and must be kept at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Evgen reportedly stabilized the compound in a way that protects its efficacy, and says to get the benefits that the pill provides you'd need to eat about 5.5 pounds of broccoli a day.

Sulforadex has already found to lower the risk of cancer, slow cancer growth, and stop its spread in animal studies, and it has been tested on 47 volunteers with promising results.2 Additional clinical trials are in the works with the hope the pill will work to treat brain hemorrhage and breast and prostate cancers.Tech Times reported:3

"Results of the clinical trials will be reported in 2016. Should the brain hemorrhage clinical trial be successful, Evgen can acquire early approval from regulators because it tackles reducing cognitive impairment, classified as a rare disease in the US and the European Union, allowing for some rules to be bypassed."

Dr. Stephen Franklin, chief executive of Evgen, told the Express:4

"I think it [Sulforadex] could be a game changer. The big step forward in cancer treatment will be when we can stop metastatic disease and stop the disease coming back… Because sulforaphane kills both cancer cells and cancer stem cells which drive that metastatic disease, we believe it represents the next major step in cancer therapy."

In addition to its cancer potential, Evgen is also testing the drug, which is essentially a synthetic version of sulforaphane, for joint pain, including arthritis, as sulforaphane is known to block inflammation and damage to joint cartilage.5

Is It Possible to Get High Levels of Sulforaphane from Eating Broccoli?

Sulforaphane is formed when you chop or chew broccoli (this combines its precursor glucoraphanin and the enzyme myrosinase). Once swallowed, your gut bacteria may then help to release some of broccoli's sulforaphane so your body can benefit, but it's a tricky proposition because sulforaphane is attached to a sugar molecule with a sulfur bond. As reported by Science Daily:6

"When the broccoli enzyme breaks off the sugar to release the sulforaphane, a sulfur-grabbing protein can remove the newly exposed sulfur on the sulforaphane and inactivate it."

Researchers have found that one of the best ways to maximize sulforaphane your body can use is to heat the broccoli for 10 minutes at 140 degrees Fahrenheit (or steam it lightly for three to four minutes until it's tough-tender).7

This was just enough heat to kill the epithiospecifier protein, which was "grabbing the sulfur" and "greatly depleting the amount of sulforaphane in a serving of broccoli."8

Frozen Broccoli May Not Contain Sulforaphane

Adding to the complexity, while frozen vegetables are often touted as nutritionally similar to fresh, when researchers tested frozen broccoli, they found it notably lacking in the ability to produce sulforaphane. They wrote in theJournal of Food Science:9

"…several commercially available frozen broccoli products do not retain the ability to generate the cancer-preventative agent sulforaphane. We hypothesized that this was because the necessary hydrolyzing enzyme myrosinase was destroyed during blanching, as part of the processing that frozen broccoli undergoes."

A follow-up study revealed that if food processors lowered the blanching temperature to 76 degrees Celsius instead of 86 degrees Celsius, the enzyme myrosinase was preserved, along with the broccoli's ability to produce beneficial sulforaphane.10

Another option was to combine the broccoli with 0.25 percent daikon radish, which is another natural source of myrosinase. Using this trick, the frozen broccoli formed sulforaphane and there was no distinguishable change to taste or appearance. Edward B. Dosz, a graduate student who worked on the study, told Science Daily:11

"That means that companies can blanch and freeze broccoli, sprinkle it with a minute amount of radish, and sell a product that has the cancer-fighting component that it lacked before."

It's unclear at this time how many companies have put this advice into practice. If you purchase frozen broccoli often, it'd be worth a call to the manufacturer to find out.

The 'Other' Broccoli Pill: Diindolylmethane (DIM)

Another notable phytochemical in broccoli is diindolylmethane, or DIM. Your body produces DIM when it breaks down cruciferous vegetables. Like many other broccoli compounds, DIM has shown multiple potential benefits, including boosting your immune system and helping to prevent or treat cancer. As SF Gate reported:12

"The compound causes normal cells to increase their production of enzymes that help your body eliminate toxins and potential carcinogenic compounds, potentially lowering your risk of disease.

The [Linus Pauling] Institute also says that DIM might stop growth of cancer cells by stimulating them to undergo a process that leads to their death. It may also inhibit cancer cells from invading normal tissue and could halt the growth of new blood vessels needed by cancerous tumors.

In addition, experts at the University of California at Berkeley report that DIM stimulates your immune system to destroy bacteria and viruses, and to detect and destroy malignant cells."

The research on DIM is promising. One study of postmenopausal women with a history of breast cancer found taking a DIM supplement for 30 days resulted in changes in estrogen metabolism that suggest a decreased risk of cancer recurrence.13 Further, as noted in the Journal of Biomedical Research:14

"In vitro studies have found that DIM has anti-proliferative and anti-cancer activities in various cancer cells including prostate, breast, endometrial, colorectal and pancreatic cancers, and leukemic cells."

Is it possible to get DIM via your diet? Yes, as mentioned DIM is found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. However, you'd need to eat a lot of them – at least two pounds a day – to get the recommended amount.15

Broccoli Sprouts Offer a More Concentrated Source of Nutrients

It's virtually always better to get your nutrients from foods as opposed to supplements, but there are cases when it's impractical, or nearly impossible, to achieve therapeutic doses from food alone.

In the case of sulforaphane and DIM, you can get meaningful amounts from eating broccoli, which will also provide you with synergistic phytochemicals. However, it may be difficult to eat enough broccoli to consistently reach therapeutic doses.

One alternative is to eat broccoli sprouts. Fresh broccoli sprouts are FAR more potent than whole broccoli, allowing you to eat far less in terms of quantity. For example, tests have revealed that three-day-old broccoli sprouts consistently contain anywhere from 10-100 times the amount of glucoraphanin -- the precursor to sulforaphane -- found in mature broccoli.16

Perhaps better still, research showed that broccoli sprouts enhanced the absorption of sulforaphane when consumed along with a broccoli powder, and broccoli sprouts alone had the highest absorption rate of all (74 percent).17 Although broccoli sprouts contain the highest amounts of broccoli phytochemicals like isothiocyanates, other cruciferous vegetables also contain this anti-cancer compound, including watercress. This often-overlooked leafy green is a close cousin to mustard greens, cabbage, and arugula.

When phytochemicals like sulforaphane are excluded from the equation, watercress may actually be the most nutrient-dense vegetable out there—scoring higher on nutrient density scores than both broccoli and sunflower sprouts.

Previous studies have also found that a compound called phenylethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC) in watercress may suppress breast cancer cell development and prevent DNA damage in cells—just like broccoli sprouts. So it’s a good idea to include a variety of sprouts in your diet, and, if you don’t enjoy the flavor of one, swap it out for one that you do.

Sprouts Are Incredibly Easy to Grow at Home

If you want to have your own ready supply of cancer-fighting nutrients, learn to grow sprouts. Growing your own sprouts is quite easy, and you don't need a whole lot of space either; they can even be grown indoors. Sprouts may be small, but they are packed with nutrition, including vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes that help protect against free radical damage.

Two of my personal favorites are sunflower seed and pea shoots—both of which are typically about 30 times more nutritious than organic vegetables. They're also among the highest in protein.

In addition, sunflower seeds contain healthy fats, essential fatty acids, and fiber—all of which are important for optimal health. Of course, you can also grow broccoli sprouts, as these are phenomenal too. I used Ball jars when I first started sprouting seeds about 25 years ago, but I've since switched over to growing them in potting soil. With Ball jars you need to rinse them several times a day to prevent mold growth and it is a hassle to have them draining in the sink, taking up space.

Moreover, you need dozens of jars to produce the same amount of sprouts as just one flat tray. I didn't have the time or patience for that, and you may not either. The choice is yours though. You can easily grow sprouts  with or without soil. My Sprout Doctor Starter Kit comes with what I consider to be three of the best sprouts to grow – sunflower, broccoli  and pea shoots. When grown in soil, you can harvest your sprouts in about a week, and a pound of seeds will probably produce over 10 pounds of sprouts.

Sunflower sprouts will give you the most volume for your effort and, in my opinion, have the best taste. In one 10x10 tray, you can harvest between one and two pounds of sunflower sprouts, which will last you about three days. You can store them in the fridge for about a week. Broccoli sprouts look and taste similar to alfalfa sprouts, which most people like. They're perfect for adding to salads, either in addition to or in lieu of salad greens, and sandwiches and are especially tasty in combination with fresh avocado.

You can also add them to your vegetable juice or smoothies. I've partnered with a company in a small town in Vermont that develops, breeds, and grows their own seeds, and is an industry leader in seed safety for sprouts and shoots. All of my seeds are non-GMO, certified organic, and packed with nutrition. My starter kit makes it easy to grow your own sprouts in the comfort of your home, whenever you want. It provides everything you need, so all you have to do is grow and enjoy your sprouts.

The sulforaphane pill sounds promising, but as a synthetic version it may succumb to the pitfalls of other synthetic nutrient reproductions, which tend to not quite match up to the original (and sometimes have unintended side effects). For now, the best way to flood your body with the cancer-fighting and immune-boosting powers of broccoli is to eat it fresh as often as you like – both in mature form and, even better, sprouted.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/05/18/broccoli-sulforaphane-pill.aspx

This post is on Healthwise

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The Top Powerhouse Fruits and Vegetables

June 23, 2014 

Eating more fresh vegetables is one of the simplest choices you can make to improve your health and ward off countless chronic diseases. Virtually anyvegetable is good for you… but some are better than others.

Story at-a-glance

• A new study analyzed levels of 17 nutrients in food considered to be important to lower your risk of heart disease and cancer in order to determine the top powerhouse fruits and vegetables
• Topping the list in terms of nutrient density are watercress, Chinese cabbage, chard, beet greens, and spinach
• Organically grown vegetables may provide superior nutrition to conventionally grown varieties, but be sure they are fresh and not wilted
• You can boost the nutritional value of your veggies, and the amount of veggies you consume, by giving fermenting, juicing, and sprouting a try
• People who eat seven or more portions of vegetables and fruit a day have a 42 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, compared to those who eat less than one portion

By Dr. Mercola

Eating more fresh vegetables is one of the simplest choices you can make to improve your health and ward off countless chronic diseases. Virtually anyvegetable is good for you… but some are better than others.

To a large extent, the best vegetables for you are those that appeal to your palate and agree with you. I highly recommend listening to your body, in that the foods you eat, including vegetables, should leave you feeling satisfied and energized.

Beyond that, however, if you want to eat the vegetables that have the mostnutritional density you should choose from the list of powerhouse fruits and vegetables. These are the foods most strongly associated with reduced chronic disease risk.

41 Powerhouse Vegetables and Fruits Based on Nutrient Density

You may have heard the advice to eat dark green leafy vegetables or focus on including a rainbow of colors (green, purple, red, and orange) when choosing your produce. This is good advice, but a researcher from William Paterson University took it a step further by analyzing levels of 17 nutrients in food considered to be important for lowering your risk of heart disease and cancer.1These include:

Potassium	Fiber	Protein
Calcium	Iron	Thiamin
Riboflavin	Niacin	Folate
Zinc	Vitamin A	Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12	Vitamin C	Vitamin D
Vitamin E	Vitamin K

The study calculated how many of the above nutrients (per calorie of energy) were included in 47 fruits and vegetables (based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet).

The higher the value, the more nutrient dense the food was determined to be. Forty-one of the foods satisfied “powerhouse” criterion and were more nutrient dense than non-powerhouse fruits and vegetables.

There were some limitations, for instance, the study did not factor in valuable phytochemicals and other so-called xenohormetic compounds (e.g. polyphenols) produced by environmental stressors to the plants that might drastically alter its nutritional merit by optimizing your gene expression and increasing longevity.

That being said, the 41 foods below topped the list based on nutrient density (with some surprising results).2 If you’re in a veggie rut, this list offers some great ideas to expand your diet while adding valuable nutrition to your meals.

Item	Nutrient Density Score
Watercress	100.00
Chinese cabbage	91.99
Chard	89.27
Beet green	87.08
Spinach	86.43
Chicory	73.36
Leaf lettuce	70.73
Parsley	65.59
Romaine lettuce	63.48
Collard green	62.49
Turnip green	62.12
Mustard green	61.39
Endive	60.44
Chive	54.80
Kale	49.07
Dandelion green	46.34
Red pepper	41.26
Arugula	37.65
Broccoli	34.89
Pumpkin	33.82
Brussels sprout	32.23
Scallion	27.35
Kohlrabi	25.92
Cauliflower	25.13
Cabbage	24.51
Carrot	22.60
Tomato	20.37
Lemon	18.72
Iceberg lettuce	18.28
Strawberry	17.59
Radish	16.91
Winter squash (all varieties)	13.89
Orange	12.91
Lime	12.23
Grapefruit (pink and red)	11.64
Rutabaga	11.58
Turnip	11.43
Blackberry	11.39
Leek	10.69
Sweet potato	10.51
Grapefruit (white)	10.47

My Most Recommended Vegetables List

My recommended list of vegetables provides a guide to the most nutritious vegetables, and those to limit due to their high carbohydrate content (think: starch is “hidden sugar”). You’ll notice many similarities to the powerhouse vegetable list above. Generally speaking, the greener the vegetable, the more nutritious it will be. I strongly advise you to avoid wilted vegetables of any kind, because when vegetables wilt, they lose much of their nutritional value.

And while I typically recommend choosing organic vegetables as much as possible to avoid pesticides (as well as boost nutrition), wilted organic vegetables may actually be less healthy than fresh conventionally farmed vegetables. Freshness is a key factor in vegetable quality, so if you can’t grow your own, look for those farmed locally or, better still, farmed locally and organically. So, as a general guide, the following list of vegetables details some of the best and worst vegetables for your health.

Highly Recommended Vegetables
Asparagus	Escarole
Avocado (actually a fruit)	Fennel
Beet greens	Green and red cabbage
Bok choy	Kale
Broccoli	Kohlrabi
Brussels sprouts	Lettuce: romaine, red leaf, green leaf
Cauliflower	Mustard greens
Celery	Onions
Chicory	Parsley
Chinese cabbage	Peppers: red, green, yellow and hot
Chives	Tomatoes
Collard greens	Turnips
Cucumbers	Spinach
Dandelion greens	Zucchini
Endive

Use sparingly due to high carbohydrate levels
Beets	Jicama
Carrots	Winter squashes
Eggplant

Vegetables to Avoid
Potatoes	Corn

Organic Vegetables May Provide Even More Nutrients

As mentioned, if you can find locally grown organic produce, this is your best bet from a nutritional perspective. It will be fresh (non-wilted), free from chemicals, and more nutritious. According to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE,3 growing tomatoes according to organic standards results in dramatically elevated nutrient content compared to tomatoes grown conventionally, using agricultural chemicals. The organic tomatoes were found to contain 55 percent more vitamin C and 139 percent more total phenolic content at the stage of commercial maturity compared to conventionally grown tomatoes.

You may have noticed that sometimes organic produce, such as tomatoes, are smaller than conventionally grown varieties, but don’t let this dissuade you. While many unaware consumers equate size with quality, this simply isn’t the case. According to research published in 2009, American produce, while larger than ever before, contains fewer nutrients and tastes worse than it did in your grandparents' days. In fact, the average vegetable found in today's supermarket is anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent lower in minerals such as magnesium, iron, calcium, and zinc than those harvested just 50 years ago.

As the featured study suggests, jumbo-sized produce contains more "dry matter" than anything else, which dilutes mineral concentrations. Previous research has also shown there can be a nutritional difference between organic and conventionally grown vegetables. For example, a 2003 study in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry found that organic foods are better for fighting cancer.4 A 2010 study conducted by PLOS ONE also found organic strawberries to be more nutrient-rich than non-organic strawberries.5

But perhaps one of the best studies out there on the benefits of organic versus conventionally grown foods is the 2007 Quality Low Input Food Project -- a $25-million study into organic food, and one of the largest of its kind.6 The researchers grew fruit and vegetables, and raised cattle, on adjacent organic and non-organic sites, and discovered that:

• Organic fruit and vegetables contained up to 40 percent more antioxidants
• Organic produce had higher levels of beneficial minerals like iron and zinc
• Milk from organic herds contained up to 90 percent more antioxidants

The results were so impressive they stated that eating organic foods can even help to increase the nutrient intake of people who don’t eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. So if you’re looking to get more nutritional density out of your food, eating organic is wise choice.

Three More Ways to Boost the Nutrient Power of Your Vegetables

What else can you do to get even more nutrition out of the foods you eat? Plenty, actually. The way in which you prepare and grow your veggies makes a difference, with the following suggestions at the top of my list: 

1. Fermenting

Fermenting is one of the best ways to turn ordinary vegetables into superfoods. The culturing process produces beneficial microbes that are extremely important for human health as they help balance your intestinal flora, thereby boosting overall immunity. Moreover, your gut is the primary locus of your immune system and also literally serves as your second brain, and even produces more of the neurotransmitter serotonin—known to have a beneficial influence on your mood—than your brain does. So, maintaining a healthy gut will benefit your mind as well as your body.

Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of toxins, including heavy metals. When fermenting vegetables, you can either use a starter culture or simply allow the natural enzymes, and good bacteria in and on the vegetables, to do all the work. This is called “wild fermentation.” Personally, I prefer a starter culture, as it provides a larger number of different species and the culture can be optimized with species that produce high levels of vitamin K2, which research is finding is likely every bit as important as vitamin D.

For over a year now, we’ve been making two to three gallons of fermented vegetables every week in our Chicago office for our staff to enjoy. We use a starter culture of the same probiotic strains that we sell as a supplement, which has been researched by our team to produce about 10 times the amount of vitamin K2 as any other starter culture.

When we had the vegetables tested, we found that in a four- to six-ounce serving there were literally 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, or about 100 times the amount of bacteria in a bottle of high-potency probiotics. There are about 100 trillion bacteria in your gut, so a single serving can literally “reseed” 10 percent of the bacterial population of the average person’s gut! To me, that’s extraordinary and a profoundly powerful reason to consider adding fermented vegetables as a staple in your diet.

2. Juicing

Juicing doesn’t actually alter the nutritional value of your vegetables, but what it does do is provide an easy way for you to consume more vegetables. Virtually every health authority recommends that we get six to eight servings of vegetables and fruits per day and very few of us actually get that. Juicing is an easy way to virtually guarantee that you will reach your daily target for vegetables. Raw juice can be likened to a "living broth," as it is teeming with micronutrients and good bacteria that many people are lacking.

When you drink fresh-made green juice, it is almost like receiving an intravenous infusion of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes because they go straight into your system without having to be broken down. Drinking your juice first thing in the morning can give you a natural energy boost without resorting to stimulants like coffee. Since the juice is already in an easily digestible form, it can help revitalize your energy levels within as little as 20 minutes.

Plus, juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because many people have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body's ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to liberate key nutrients from the tough plant cell walls for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.

Juicing also allows you to add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads or side dishes every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an allergy to a certain food. Plus, it limits the number of different phytochemicals in your diet, as each vegetable will offer unique benefits. With juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole.

3. Sprouting

Sprouts are a superfood that many people overlook, as they offer a concentrated source of nutrition that’s different from eating the vegetable in mature form. Sprouts in general have the following beneficial attributes:

• Support for cell regeneration
• Powerful sources of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and enzymes that protect against free radical damage
• Alkalinizing effect on your body, which is thought to protect against disease, including cancer (as many tumors are acidic)
• Abundantly rich in oxygen, which can also help protect against abnormal cell growth, viruses, and bacteria that cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment

Some of the most commonly sprouted beans, nuts, seeds and grains include:

Broccoli: known to have powerful anti-cancer properties, courtesy of the enzymesulforaphane	Alfalfa: a significant dietary source of phytoestrogens. Also a good source of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, F, and K	Wheatgrass: high in vitamins B, C, E and many minerals	Mung bean: good source of protein, fiber, and vitamins C and A
Clover: significant source of beneficial isoflavones	Lentil sprouts:contain 26 percent protein, and can be eaten without cooking	Sunflower: contains minerals, healthy fats, essential fatty acids, fiber, and phytosterols. It's also one of the highest in protein	Pea shoots: good source of vitamins A, C, and folic acid, and one of the highest in protein

My two favorites are sunflower and watercress sprouts. They provide some of the highest quality protein you can eat. They are also a perfect complement to fermented vegetables. It is hard to imagine a healthier combination that provides the essentials of nutrition very inexpensively. In addition to their nutritional profile, sprouts are also easy to grow on your own with very little space and time.

Are You Eating Your Veggies?

Despite the fact that vegetables have been proven to help lower your risk of chronic disease and support longevity, most Americans are not eating nearly enough of these natural, relatively inexpensive superfoods. The latest data shows that nearly 23 percent of Americans report consuming vegetables and fruits less than one time daily, with a median vegetable intake of just 1.6 times per day overall.7 This is quite a shame, as people who eat seven or more portions of vegetables and fruit a day have a 42 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, compared to those who eat less than one portion. They also enjoy a 31 percent lower risk of heart disease and a 25 percent lower risk of cancer.8

The research, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, is among the first to quantify the health benefits of eating different amounts of fresh produce. As you might suspect, eating any amount of vegetables was better than none at all, but the benefits increased with more servings:

• Those who ate five to seven servings of vegetables and fruits per day had a 36 percent lower risk of dying from any cause
• Three to five servings was associated with a 29 percent lower risk
• One to three servings was associated with a 14 percent lower risk

Most vegetables are not very calorie dense and as a result they probably should constitute the bulk of your diet by volume. Even though my diet is 70 percent fat by calories, if you were to spread out all the food I eat in a day, the largest volume of food would be vegetables. Vegetables contain an array of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds that are very difficult to get anywhere else. Plant chemicals called phytochemicals can reduce inflammation and eliminate carcinogens, while others regulate the rate at which your cells reproduce, get rid of old cells, and maintain DNA. Studies have repeatedly shown that people with higher vegetable intake have:

Lower risks of stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, and heart disease	Lower risks of certain types of cancer, eye diseases, and digestive problems	Reduced risk of kidney stones and bone loss
Higher scores on cognitive tests	Higher antioxidant levels	Lower biomarkers for oxidative stress

Vegetables have an impressive way of offering widespread benefits to your health. When you eat them, you're getting dozens, maybe even hundreds or thousands, of super-nutrients that support optimal, body-wide health. We've compiled an extensive review of the health benefits of vegetables in our Mercola Food Facts Library. If you want to know more, that’s an excellent place to start, but suffice to say mama was right: if you want to be healthy and strong, you’ve got to eat your vegetables.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/23/top-fruits-vegetables.aspx

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