Don't cross these off your list!

Raise your hand if you know someone who has cancer right now. It’s a good bet that over 75% know a cancer victim, including yourself. The numbers are astounding. Be it chemicals in our water and food, microplastics everywhere, or electromagnetic frequencies from our phones, computers, or other devices, there’s no doubt cancer affects us all. However, knowledge about what is best to eat has been recently reinforced. Some of the most promising foods that fight cancer are cruciferous vegetables, so named because their flowers have four petals shaped like a cross. And remember, it’s pronounced KROO-cif-erous.

Having had my own encounter with cancer, I decided consuming cruciferous vegetables would be on my menu multiple times per week. After all, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and the like had always been favorites. Easy peasy! But let me warn you: Don’t overdo it!

Cruising through the produce section one day, I noticed a big sign advertising organic broccoli on sale. Yay! I love broccoli. So I bought a few pounds of dark green florets, took them home, steamed some, and added Vegenaise. It was quite a large portion, but it was the main course. No big deal. The next day I included broccoli at lunch and ate the last of it at dinner. Kinda burned out on it, but I would reap the gut-cleansing benefits later on. But I didn’t. Instead of re-enacting A River Runs Through It, so to speak, the huge amount of fiber bound me up tighter than Willie Nelson’s headband! The bloated, crampy feeling sucked. It took another day until I could free myself of the broccoli burden. Yes, fiber may be good for you, but be careful on how much you consume.

Back to the vegetables. While we’re all familiar with the cruciferous plants mentioned above, there are far more in the group than you may know. Some of the arcane include Ethiopian mustard, komatsuna, mizuna, choy sum, tatsoi, rocket arugula, and field pepperweed. And don't forget the cress family: garden cress, watercress, and the very rare Mike Cress. All of these carry the promising cancer-fighting nutrients to some degree, and they not only help prevent but battle existing cancers—what can’t Mike do?

The entire family is rich in nutrients like carotenoids, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Glucosinates help fight cancers such as colorectal, mouth, esophageal, lung, and stomach. An extremely promising study, recently released, indicated that sulforaphane could help thwart the development and progression of prostate cancer.

On top of this, many compounds in cruciferous plants were found to fight cancers of the bladder, colon, and lungs in a study done on rats and mice. (We won’t dwell on how the little critters got the cancer, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t due to smoking cigarettes and chugging whiskey every night.)

Next time you’re in the produce section, take a closer look at the various cruciferous selections available. They look good, taste good, and are good for you.