and treat cancer and other diseases. Their actions halt the production
of cancer-causing agents in the body, blocking activation of these
chemicals, or suppressing the spread of cancer cells that already exist.
The vegetables and fruits researchers think are most capable of pre-
venting cancer and other diseases, including heart disease, are green
leafy vegetables, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, onions, citrus
fruit (not the juice), grapes, red wine, green tea and others. The more
bitter, the better.
How many times have you heard that if something tastes good
then it must not be good for you, or vice-versa? While this is a gross
generalization, many people avoid eating bitter-tasting vegetables
and fruits, which are particularly high in the natural disease-prevent-
ing phytonutrients that cause their bitterness. In general, the more bit-
ter the taste, the more rich the food is in these phytonutrients.
For plants, these bitter-tasting substances — the healthy phytonu-
trients — serve as natural insect repellents and pesticides. Some are
even toxic to small animals like birds, mice and rats, including some
compounds in cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Generally, higher
amounts of bitter-tasting phytonutrients are found in sprouts and
seedlings than in mature plants. This provides young plants with a
type of natural protection from being eaten at an early stage of life,
before the chance of reproduction. But you would have to consume
pounds and pounds of vegetables daily to ingest toxic amounts of
phytonutrients.
Despite the therapeutic and nutritive value of phytonutrients, the
food industry is solving the so-called “problem” of bitterness in fruits
and vegetables by removing these healthful chemicals through genet-
ic engineering and selective breeding. Unfortunately, our culture has
associated bitterness with bad taste instead of health promotion. Now
many agricultural scientists, who want foods sweeter, are changing
our food supply for us — they are literally removing the healthy com-
ponents from certain foods in order to sell more food products. And
they are succeeding. Canola oil, for example, contains significant
reductions of phytonutrients due to selective breeding. And trans-
genic citrus is now a reality — it’s sweeter, but it’s also free of
limonene, the bitter substance that can help prevent and treat skin
cancer.
102 • IN FITNESS AND IN HEALTH