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

by Michael Greger

Compared with the control group, people eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables had an 82 percent greater protective antibody response to the vaccine—and this was after only a few months of eating just a few extra servings of fruits and vegetables a day.22 That is how much control the fork may exert over immune function. Certain fruits and vegetables may give the immune function an extra boost. Kale Americans eat far too little kale. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average American may consume about 0.05 pounds of kale each year.23 That’s about one and a half cups per person … per decade. As a dark-green, leafy vegetable, kale is not only one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet—it may also help fight off infection. Japanese researchers tried dripping a minute quantity of kale on human white blood cells in a petri dish, about one-millionth of a gram of kale protein. Even that miniscule quantity triggered a quintupling of antibody production in the cells.24 The researchers used raw kale, but the scant amounts of kale Americans consume are often cooked. Does cooking kale destroy its immune-boosting effects? It turned out that even boiling the veggies nonstop for thirty minutes did not affect antibody production. In fact, the cooked kale appeared to work even better.25 However, this property was discovered in a test-tube study. Even kale aficionados don’t mainline it like heroin, which is presumably the only way intact kale protein...