| Food Sources—Fish liver oil (cod liver oil), fatty-fleshed fish, iweet potatoes, egg yolks, vegetable oils, butter, and (in America) 'itamin D-fortified milk products.
Functions in the Body—Cholecalciferol acts primarily to maintain bone integrity through enhanced absorption of the minerals required to build and maintain the skeletal structure. While this is vitamin D's main function, studies have revealed other possible roles. When combined with calcium, vitamin D has been found to possess anticancer properties. In some people, low levels of the vitamin may increase blood pressure. |
| The carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, which your body converts to active vitamin A, but which are derived from vegetable and fruit sources, do not carry the toxicity risk of vitamin A that comes from animal sources. You can take higher amounts of beta-carotene in supplemental form, on the order of 10 to 15 mg or 15,000 IU to 25,000 IU per day, without risk. It is important to take only natural beta-carotene, however, if you have hypothyroidism. |
| Vitamin K also occurs abundantly in a wide variety of vegetable foods. However, because the vitamin is fat soluble, in order to be absorbed properly—whether from a bacterial source or from food—there must be some fat present in your intestine. Therefore, medical conditions that decrease intestinal fat absorption, such as gall bladder stones, could result in secondary deficiency of vitamin K and consequently problems with bleeding. |
Gary Null
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 The cellulose-type carbohydrates that predominate in this vegetable are so complex, they don't go into your bloodstream at all.
In the middle are the complex carbohydrates represented by starch, the kind found in potatoes, corn, and bread. Conversion here is slower than that for sugar, but not as slow as that required by high-roughage foods. For this reason, digesting and assimilating such a good food is easy on your very active gastrointestinal system.
If you know what factors are at play in food absorption, you can sometimes do a thing or two to facilitate matters yourself at mealtime. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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 Ongoing clinical trials with P-carotene in the prevention of several forms of human cancer, including lung, oral cavity, and breast cancer, should help to determine whether the association between fruit and vegetable intake and reduced rates of cancer is due in part to the presence of P-carotene. In one recent report, neither P-carotene nor a-tocopherol supplements were effective in preventing lung cancer in Finnish men who were heavy smokers (Heinonen and Albanes 1994). |
Ruth Winter, M.S.
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 Since baby boomers may prefer to have plant-derived products, protein fractions in vegetable extracts are claimed to provide a "tightening effect." SKULLCAP • Scutellaria laterifolia. Madweed. Mad Dog Scullcap. Quaker Bonnet. Huang Chi. Grown throughout the world. There are about 90 known species. It was used to cure infertility. Herbalists use it today for relief of epilepsy, convulsions, and withdrawal from drug and alcohol addiction. It is also used as a sedative, and it is used in "organic" cosmetics. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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 Antimutagenic activities in vitro of vegetable and fruit extracts with respect to benzo(a)pyrene]. Z Gesamte Hyg Ihre Grenzgeb (GRD).1990;36:144-147.
Vitamin A was the first vitamin to be isolated and defined. It is a fat-soluble food factor that gives us the power of night vision. It also fortifies the mucous membranes, which serve as a barrier against poisons, microbial invaders and carcinogens (cancer-causing substances). It protects the thymus gland (crucial for immunity) and is essential for protein synthesis and normal growth. |
| As just one example, scientists in Germany tested various fruit and vegetable juices against mutation- and cancer-causing chemicals. About 80 percent of these juices displayed antimutation and anticancer activity. Juices from raw celery root, broccoli, red cabbage, carrots, green peppers, lettuce, asparagus, apricots, red-currants, gooseberries, raspberries and pineapple all showed more than 50 percent inhibition of these harmful chemicals (1). |
| It turned out that the potency of each vegetable extract was directly related to its chlorophyll content. Chlorophyllin (the sodium-copper salt of chlorophyll) showed similar levels of activity, scientists at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, TXsaid(l).
A 1985 article in Mutation Research examined the effects of several food compounds in preventing mutations caused by two chemicals found in cigarette smoke (cigarette-smoke condensate and benzo[a]pyrene). Ellagic acid and riboflavin inhibited mutations. Vitamin C, betacarotene and vitamin E did not. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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| For example, increasing vegetable intake (which adds considerable bulk to the diet) could result in decreased consumption of higher calorie foods, thereby leading to inadvertent weight loss. Even well-designed intervention trials can founder on such obstacles.
Examples of intervention studies related to dietary exposures include a trial of P-carotene supplements to lower risk of skin cancers (Greenberg et al. |
| Fat content varies somewhat more, from 50 to 200% of the average value, in foods of both vegetable and animal origin.
This greater variation in fat content reflects genetic and cultural practices, ones that are now changing because of recent appreciation of the role nutrition plays in chronic disease. Trace nutrients, constitutive naturally occurring chemicals, and natural contaminants are subject to much wider variation in foods derived from plants. Table 2-1 presents data representative of these variations in the U.S. diet.
Some foods, e.g. |
| At present, a sound recommendation for cancer prevention is to increase fruit and vegetable intake. Concerning specific plant derived chemicals, we do not have adequate information to recommend supplementation beyond the recommended daily requirements for particular vitamins or other nutrients.
Future Directions
New research approaches and enhanced resources are needed to address the precise roles of both naturally occurring and synthetic dietary chemicals in human cancer causation and prevention. |
Natural Prescriptions: Dr. Giller's Natural Treatments & Vitamin Therapies For Over 100 Common AilmentsRobert M. Giller, M.D.
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| Increase intake of polyunsaturated oil including vegetable oils, safflower oil, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, wheat germ oil.
• Make every effort to eliminate any allergens from your diet and environment. See Food Allergy, page 146, and Hay Fever, page 167.
IN ADDITION TO YOUR DAILY SUPPLEMENTS, PACE xxiv, TAKE
• Vitamin C: 1,000 mg. daily.
• Vitamin E: 400 I.U. daily.
• Vitamin B12: one 1,000-mg. tablet dissolved under the tongue daily.
• Beta-carotene: 10,000 I.U. daily.
• Selenium: 100 meg. daily.
• Zinc: 22.5 mg. daily.
• Calcium: 1,200 mg. daily. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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| In some instances, the associations were stronger for animal fat than for vegetable fat consumption (Rose et al. 1986, Prentice and Shephard 1990).
The findings from these ecological analyses have not been confirmed in analytical epidemiologic studies based on data collected directly from individuals. Thus, whereas a combined analysis of 12 case-control studies found a weak positive association between fat intake and breast cancer risk (Howe et al. |
Michael Lerner
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 He agrees with Gerson on the use of freshly prepared vegetable and fruit juices, but does not agree that these juices are always needed hourly 12 times a day. He also accepts Gerson's concept that raw organic liver juice may help build the blood. He also found Gerson's coffee enemas effective as a liver stimulant—a point to which I will return in my discussion of Gerson. |
Nelson Foster and Linda S. Cordell
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 Since the climate and latitude of New Zealand are similar to those of agricultural regions in North America and Europe, oca certainly possesses the potential to become a common vegetable in Western cuisine during the next twenty years. It also holds promise for the highlands of Asia and Africa and should be tested there.
Arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza) is another Inca root with the potential to make a contribution around the world. The late David Fairchild, dean of U.S. |
| Since there was no "baseline" inventory of how much variation existed in American fields at the time of Columbus, we will never have a reliable estimate of how much crop diversity—how many genes, vegetable varieties, or plant species— has been lost in the New World during the last five hundred years. (We hardly possess such an inventory for crops that exist today.) Yet fools rush in where archaeobotanists fear to tread. |
| Evidently, coloring was found to be necessary as well, for achiotte and campeche arc red-brown vegetable dyes. Native to Latin America, they would lend an unnatural red tinge to the rich dark brown of roasted cacao, and today they are used principally in foods other than chocolate. The Spanish may have resorted to the dyes to darken Criollo cacao, a light-colored variety from Mexico that they may have considered too pale for the kingly consumer. |
| Its cultivation today extends from Venezuela to northern Chile, and in much of this tremendous region the young roots are a fairly common market vegetable. Achira is also grown in other parts of the tropics, notablv on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and in Australasia. In both Java and northern Australia it has been raised commercially on a small scale, and the Australian product has been marketed as "Queensland arrowroot." In subtropical Hawaii, achira has been grown as fodder for cattle and pigs. |
| Yet it was also unlike any familiar vegetable. "What is it?" the Spaniards must have asked themselves. As for the peanut, it seemed to be a nut, but whoever heard of an underground nut? Understandably, these foods did not at once grip the imagination and appetite of America's invaders.
Given this background, let me now treat two of the foods in more detail. |
| A relative of cress, the European salad vegetable, maca is a matlike perennial so small that even visiting botanists have been known not to realize when they were standing in a farmer's field. Its tinv leaves are edible and have traditionally been eaten in salads or used to fatten guinea pigs for the table. The bulbous roots, which look like brown radishes, are rich in sugar and starch and have a distinctly sweet, tangy flavor that has made them a delicacy in the high Andean plateau region of Peru and Bolivia. |
Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
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| No association was found for oils of vegetable origin. The relative risk of colon cancer in women who ate beef, pork, or lamb as a main dish every day was about two-and-a-half times that of women who ate such foods less than once a month. Processed meats and liver were also associated with increased risk, whereas fish and chicken without skin were related to decreased risk. |
Committee on Comparative Toxicity of Naturally Occurring Carcinogens
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| Increasing dietary fruit and vegetable intake may actually protect against cancer. The NRC report Diet and Health concluded that macronutrients and excess calories are likely the greatest contributors to dietary cancer risk in the United States.
Second, the committee concluded that natural components of the diet may prove to be of greater concern than synthetic components with respect to cancer risk, although additional evidence is required before definitive conclusions can be drawn. |
Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., Lisa Y. Lefferts and Anne Witte Garland
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| Be on the lookout especially if you're buying fish, vegetable oil, or any imported canned food. (The solder may not in fact be lead, but there's no easy way to tell.) Seamless cans are easy to spot; it's a little more challenging to tell the difference between welded and soldered cans. Carefully examine cans with seams. Welded seams are very neat, and the metal around them is shiny. Run your finger down the seam of the can; if you feel unevenness through the label, the seam is soldered, possibly with lead. |
Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.
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 A nutritionally balanced meal doesn't require a multitude of side dishes. vegetable, protein, and carbohydrate needs can be met with three to four menu items. Be especially careful around buffets, where the variety may tempt you to overeat (see Chapter 6). As an extrovert, you are even more vulnerable to buffet binging, so you may want to think twice before making restaurant reservations at that new all-you-can-eat establishment. Maybe the temptation is not even worth it.
3. Minimize your exposure to food stimuli. Researcher Bernard Lyman, Ph.D. |
Gary Null
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 Excellent vegetable sources include peas, soybeans, mushrooms, whole grains, most nuts, and seeds, especially pumpkin.
Lack of taste or smell is a sign of zinc deficiency. Skin problems also may indicate zinc deficiencies. Stretch marks are an indication that elastin, the fibers that make your skin springy and smooth, are not incorporating enough zinc to keep your skin healthy. Acne and psoriasis can result from zinc deficiency, as can an abnormal wearing away of tooth enamel. Other signs of zinc deficiency include opaque fingernails, brittle hair, and bleeding gums. |
| Whole-grain winter wheat is a palatable and practical source. vegetable leaves have fish oil type fatty acids in high proportion to other types of fat, but have so little total fat that they are not a very efficient way of supplying these oils. Although olive oil is a good oil to use and may play a role in lowering cholesterol, it does not contain fish oil type fatty acids.
One way to ensure that we get enough essential fatty acids for ideal functioning is to remove foods from our diet which can interfere with their processing. |
| If, on the other hand, you eat a complex carbohydrate in the form of a grain or vegetable, it is digested and goes through your system in a matter of 30 to 80 minutes. You benefit from the energy and you're not taxing your digestive system. But it also means there will be a tendency to get hungry sooner.
After all, we tend to gain weight in large part because we get hungry and have snacks between meals. A fatty or high-protein food eaten at mealtime will require one to four hours of digestion just to empty out the stomach. |
| Never peel away any vegetable skin if it isn't essential to your recipe to do so, since in and near the skin is stored much of the plant's roughage and nutrients.
The whole legume family deserves special attention. A good way to eat these and profit by the skins is to sprout your peas, chick-peas, mung beans, and lentils rather than cook them. In doing so you are rewarded with the full value of the live food, including minerals, amino acids, and carbohydrate energy. Remember to steam bean sprouts briefly before serving. |
| These are the ingredients commonly listed on loaves of bread made from enriched flour: barley malt, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated
Get Healthy Now! 23 vegetable shortening, yeast, salt, dicalcium phosphate, calcium propionate, and potassium bromate. |
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