How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

by Michael Greger

Common cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, collards, and kale. I recommend at least one serving a day

Everyone should try to incorporate one tablespoon of ground flaxseeds into his or her daily diet,

Arugula, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, horseradish, kale (black, green, and red), mustard greens, radishes, turnip greens, and watercress

If you chop the broccoli (or brussels sprouts, kale, collards, cauliflower, or any other cruciferous vegetable) and then wait forty minutes, you can cook it as much as you want. At that point, the sulforaphane has already been made, so the enzyme is no longer needed to achieve maximum benefit.

However, the addition of powdered mustard seeds to cooked broccoli significantly increases sulforaphane formation.14

Arugula, beet greens, collard greens, kale (black, green, and red), mesclun mix (assorted young salad greens), mustard greens, sorrel, spinach, swiss chard, and turnip greens

Of all the food groups analyzed by a team of Harvard University researchers, greens turned out to be associated with the strongest protection against major chronic diseases,6 including up to about a 20 percent reduction in risk for both heart attacks7 and strokes8 for every additional daily serving.

So, for example, one cup of water, a frozen banana, a cup of frozen berries, and a cup of packed baby spinach would be a classic green smoothie 101.

Cooked turmeric appears to offer better DNA protection, while raw turmeric may have greater anti-inflammatory effects.

I don’t recommend fish oil, since even purified (“distilled”) fish oil has been found to be contaminated with considerable amounts of PCBs and other pollutants, so much so that taken as directed, salmon, herring, and tuna oils would exceed the tolerable daily intake