Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 61

Now. which has more vitamin E or vitamin C — broccoli or steak?

I'm sure you are aware that steak has no vitamin C or vitamin E. It is

also almost totally lacking in fiber, folate, vitamin A, beta-carotene,

lutein, lycopene, vitamin K, flavonoids, and thousands of other pro-

tective phytochemicals. Meat does have certain vitamins and miner-

als, but even when we consider the nutrients that meat does contain,

broccoli has lots more of them. For many important nutrients, broc-

coli has more than ten times as much as steak. The only exception is

vitamin B 12 , which is not found in plant fare.

When you consider the fiber, phytochemicals, and other essen-

tial nutrients, green vegetables win the award for being the most

nutrient-dense of all foods. We will give greens a score of 1 00 and judge

all other foods against this criterion.

The Secret of Extreme Longevity

Interestingly, there is one food that scientific research has shown has

a strong positive association with increased longevity in humans. So

which food do you think that is?

The answer is raw, leafy greens, normally referred to as salad.^17

Leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, kale, collards, Swiss chard, and

spinach are the most nutrient-dense of all foods.

Most vegetables contain more nutrients per calorie than any

other food and are rich in all necessary amino acids. For example, ro-

maine lettuce, which gets 18 percent of its calories from fat and al-

most 50 percent of its calories from protein, is a rich powerhouse

with hundreds of cancer-fighting phytonutrients that protect us from

a variety of threatening illnesses. Being healthy and owning a disease-

resistant body is not luck; it is earned.

In a review of 206 human-population studies, raw vegetable

consumption showed the strongest protective effect against cancer of

any beneficial food.^18 However, less than one in a hundred Ameri-

cans consumes enough calories from vegetation to ensure this de-

fense.

I tell my patients to put a big sign on their refrigerator that says

THE SALAD IS THE MAIN DISH.

The word salad here means any vegetable eaten raw or uncooked,

e.g., a bowl of cold pasta in olive oil with a token vegetable is not a

salad. I encourage my patients to eat two huge salads a day, with the

goal of consuming an entire head of romaine or other green lettuce