ALL ABOUT VEGETABLES
by Dr. Lawrence Wilson
© May 2022, LD Wilson Consultants, Inc.
All
information in this article is solely the opinion of the author and for
educational purposes only. It is
not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health
condition.
Table Of Contents
Roots
Cruciferous
Vegetables
Greens
Fiber
Minerals
Organically
Grown
Fresh,
Frozen Or Canned?
Cooking And
Preparing Vegetables
Fermented
Vegetables
How Much?
Toppings For
Vegetables
Children And
Vegetables
Juicing
Vegetable
Snacks
Harmful
Vegetables
Vegetables Versus Fruits
Herbs Versus
Vegetables
______________________
DEFINITIONS
Definition of a vegetable. Vegetables
are defined botanically as the roots, stems, leaves and flowers of plants. This is important because some foods
that are called vegetables, such as squash and peppers, are not
vegetables. Instead, they are
fruits.
Importance of vegetables in the diet. Today, eating vegetables, properly
cooked, is essential for health. Anyone who does not eat cooked vegetables is
not healthy, no matter how well one appears.
We pass
along this observation based upon working with over 60,000 people over the past
41 years. A section later in this
article discusses why vegetables are so important in the diet today.
FRUIT
Definition of a fruit. Fruits are defined botanically as the
fleshy part of an expanded ovary of a plant. You can identify
fruits easily because they contain seeds.
Why
we do not recommend eating any fruits.
-
Fruits are much more yin in
macrobiotic terms. This is a
critical topic in nutrition that very few nutritionists or doctors know about
or pay attention to. We think this
is a deliberate flaw in their education designed to mix up the public in the
area of food and diet.
Yang
and yin
are ancient concepts taught in the Hebrew Bible, and in Holy books around the
world. Credit for the concepts is
often given to the ancient Taoists, but the idea is much older. For details, read Yin Disease and Understanding
Yang And Yin.
-
Fruits are much less nutrient-dense than vegetables. Some will argue that some fruits are
extremely high in anti-oxidants and other phyto-nutrients. However, in terms of general nutrient
density, fruit is a lot lower than vegetables. A major reason for this is that fruits contain more water
and sugars than vegetables. Both
of these are more yin chemicals, which we want to avoid.
-
Fruits generally have a much worse balance of minerals than vegetables. In particular, fruit is lower in zinc
and selenium, minerals that are extremely important for everyone to eat today.
-
Fruits absorb much more toxic potassium and other toxins from commercial
fertilizers and pesticides than do vegetables. This is a very serious problem. For details, read Toxic Potassium.
-
Most fruits contain too much sugar. This upsets the blood sugar of many
people. Much worse, however, is
that the sugars feed yeast organisms and parasites inside the body. Or research indicates that it is
impossible to truly balance the intestinal flora or to rid the body of
parasites if one eats fruits. It
does not matter that the sugars in fruits are natural.
-
Fruits often harbor dangerous bacteria, fungi, and parasites. This is due to their high sugar
content and more yin nature. The
problem is made much worse because fruits are often eaten raw.
-
Fruit-eating is very harmful for the teeth. This is due to their high sugar
content and due to the presence of fruit acids. In fact, fruits can be acid-forming
in the body, a fact that is not acknowledged in many nutrition textbooks.
-
Fruits are high in toxic forms of minerals that we call the Amigos. These are oxides, carbonates and other biounavailable
and irritating forms of minerals.
They are unfortunately common in most soils in the world.
When
nutritionists tell you that fruit is a mineral-rich food, they do not
distinguish between the healthy compounds of these minerals and the very irritating
compounds, which are higher in fruits than in vegetables.
-
Some fruits are slightly toxic, including avocado and all coconut products. Eating them leaves a toxin in the
liver.
-
Most commercial and organic fruit today is very hybridized. The result is even lower nutritional
quality and a more yin and therefore harmful product.
-
Some fruit simply cannot be grown today without the use of toxic sprays and
insecticides, either chemical or natural. Even fruit classified as organic often contains ÔnaturalÕ
herbicides that are toxic. The
organic standards are not strict enough.
-
Many fruits are picked green and ripened during transit with toxic chemicals. Otherwise they would not survive the
trip from tropical nations, for example.
Some of these chemicals are absorbed into the fruit.
-
A number of fruits, including apples, cucumbers, and others are sprayed with a
chemical coating in order to preserve them. Some of this coating is absorbed into the fruit. Consumers of fruit are not told about
this processing of most fruit in the world.
For more
details, read Fruit-Eating.
VEGETABLES
THAT ARE REALLY FRUITS
These are all tomatoes, all peppers
(both sweet and hot peppers), all squashes, pumpkins, eggplant, okra, cucumbers
and other gourds.
Potatoes are also
fruits because they contain seeds.
Technically, they are called tubers. Potatoes are not roots in the same way
as are carrots, onions, rutabagas, and others. The reason is that the ÔeyesÕ of a potato are seeds. This makes the potato a type of fruit.
Pumpkin and
winter squashes (butternut, spaghetti, and acorn squash are not too yin, so a
portion up to twice a week is okay, though not highly recommended. We do not recommend summer squashes
such as zucchini and sunburst squash because these are much more yin.
THE
DEVELOPENT DIET EMPHASIZES PROPERLY-COOKED VEGETABLES
This is very
important to understand. It means
that the main ingredient in every meal is to be vegetables. The vegetables must also be cooked
properly and not overcooked.
We do not
call the development diet a Òvegetable-basedÓ diet because, to many people and
many physicians, this means a more-or-less vegetarian diet in which meat plays
a minor role. This is not true of
the development diet.
Why
not eat a vegetarian or almost vegetarian diet? Good quality meats, fish, eggs and diary products are among
the most important human foods imaginable. They are needed in the diet every day.
We find
vegetarian-like diets such as the Hallelujah diet and even the Mediterranean
Diet quite harmful. We consider
all vegetarian websites, books, cookbooks, and other literature a dangerous
fraud.
One may feel
better on these diets for a while for a number of reasons. However, they are deficient diets that
eventually ruin oneÕs health. For
details, read The Hallelujah diet, The Mediterranean Diet and Vegetarian Diets.
The best source of alkaline reserve
minerals of any food group.
Vegetables are exceedingly nutritious, particularly in minerals,
anti-oxidants, and hundreds of other nutrients. These cannot be
obtained from any other foods.
For example, farmers know that vegetables deplete the soil of minerals more
than any other crops.
Most all
bodies are mineral-starved today thanks to modern N-P-K agriculture, food
refining, stress and poor quality diets. For these reasons, everyone needs to
eat plenty of cooked vegetables.
Cooking is needed
because human beings cannot digest tough vegetable fibers, within which are
most of the minerals in vegetables.
We find that anyone who eats
salad in any quantity demineralizes and therefore harms
the body.
The effects
are worst for women, who are prone to osteoporosis later in life. Osteoporosis is a type of
demineralization.
Excellent for weight loss. Eating a lot of cooked vegetables can
help anyone lose lots of weight without feeling hungry. In contrast, fruit will keep weight on.
II. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Vegetables
are best eaten:
- Fresh
-
Organically grown
-
Cooked until soft, not raw, crunchy or al dente. Pressure-cooking is the best method to preserve the
nutritional quality of vegetables.
Steaming and crock pots are also good cooking
methods.
We do not
recommend other cooking methods such as roasting, boiling, baking, frying,
stir-frying or sautŽing, broiling, deep frying, or
tempura style. High-temperature
cooking always produces toxic AGES (advanced glycation end products).
In general,
we do not recommend fermenting, which often produces toxic Aldehydes.
-
Locally
grown is very good, but only if the vegetables are of excellent quality.
- Eat cooked vegetables three times
daily. It is best to cook them
fresh for each meal, but it is okay to cook a lot of them once or twice daily
and eat them all day.
Roots. The best are all onions, leeks,
carrots, rutabaga, daikon, scallions and
shallots. The others we classify
as ÔÕfoods for occasional useÕ. We
donÕt recommend them, except for once in a while, because they do not contain
enough of the chemicals needed for development.
They include
yams, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and others. I suggest avoiding red beets, which are slightly toxic.
The cabbage family or
cruciferous vegetables.
The best are red cabbage, cauliflower (including the leaves and stems
around the outside), and Brussels sprouts. Broccoli is okay, but at this time brocolini,
also called baby broccoli or brocolette is better for
development. (Rutabaga and daikon are also cruciferous, but I listed them under
roots).
Greens. Daily ones are green onions and
green beans. Other greens are for
occasional use only such as spinach, bok choy, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, parsley, watercress,
cilantro, mustard greens, collard greens, carrot tops, and a few others. Some kale is reported to contain high
levels of thallium, a toxic metal, so I would avoid it for now.
How
much?
70-80% of each meal needs to be properly cooked daily vegetables. We know this is a lot. However, the bodies seem to need this
much at this time for rapid development and excellent health.
Also, eat a
little of 10 or more different vegetables at each
meal. At one time we recommended eating
fewer different vegetables at a meal.
However, recently we find that eating a small amount of many different
vegetables is much better.
DO NOT:
Do not eat
raw vegetables. I know this goes
against popular opinion. The
reasons are explained below.
Do not eat
the nightshade family vegetables.
These include tomatoes, white and red potatoes, eggplant and all
peppers. The only exception is that a little ground cayenne pepper is fine as a
spice.
Do not eat
much asparagus, artichoke, lettuce, cucumbers, celery, algae, spirulina, summer squashes (zucchini, sunburst and others),
or most mushrooms, including kombucha tea. These are all more yin or somewhat
toxic or irritating to the intestinal tract.
Fresh
vegetables are generally best. The
next best if you cannot find fresh vegetables are canned vegetables. Frozen vegetables do not work well for development.
ROOT
VEGETABLES
Root
vegetables deserve special mention and are often ignored. They have been staple foods in most
civilizations for thousands of years.
Roots are among the most concentrated sources of vitamins and minerals
available to us.
With each
meal eat carrots, leeks, onions (white, yellow, green and red), shallots,
scallions, daikon (white radish) are the best.
Yang. Roots are more yang
in macrobiotic terms because they grow underground. This quality is very beneficial for everyone today. Roots also store very well, which helps
if you do not enjoy shopping every few days.
Starchy. Most roots
are starchy vegetables, which means they will fill you up quite well if you eat
enough of them. Yet they are far
easier to digest than other starches such as grains, breads or dried beans.
Cooking
roots. We recommend cooking all your
vegetables together because it is easiest. Cut roots such as rutabaga into thin slices. Cut carrots and onions into thicker
slices.
You will
need to experiment a little and you will find you can cook all vegetables
together in a pressure-cooker for about 2 minutes, or steam them for about 30
minutes to break down their tough fibers and turn their starches into
sugars.
CRUCIFEROUS
VEGETABLES
The best are
cauliflower, red cabbage, Brussels
sprouts, rutabaga.
Much
research lately has focused on the health benefits of cruciferous
vegetables. All are rich sources
of sulfur of a particular kind, along with hundreds of other nutrients and phytochemicals. These amazing foods contain substances that
can help prevent cancer and many other life-threatening conditions.
GREENS
These
are good vegetables, but they are quite a bit more yin and most do not contain
enough of the chemicals needed for development so most are not for daily use on
the development diet.
Some people
only eat greens, thinking these are the best vegetables. Please do not do this.
Kale
can absorb too much thallium, making this vegetable possibly toxic, depending
upon where it is grown. I would
avoid most kale at this time.
SALADS
Do not eat
salad, except perhaps a small amount as a garnish if you wish. The problems with salads are:
1. Raw vegetables
are much more yin than cooked ones.
Eating more yin food is generally quite harmful for health.
2. Our
bodies cannot absorb many minerals from raw vegetables because we cannot break
down their tough vegetable fibers, which contain most of the minerals in a
vegetable. Cooking breaks down the
fiber, and is a major reason for cooking vegetables.
3. For the
reason above, salad is not a particularly nutritious food, other than its high
content of fiber.
4. Salads
have so much roughage they fill up the stomach and cause a person to eat less
of the essential foods - cooked vegetables, blue corn, and some animal protein.
5. In
restaurants, in particular, I would completely avoid salads because they are
often unclean and can harbor bacteria, viruses and parasites.
VEGETABLE
JUICES
The
development diet includes 10-12 ounces of carrot juice daily or as an
alternative have 1-2 ounces of wheat grass juice, but only up to twice a week.
Vegetables
juices are nutritious. The problem
with more juices is that juice is extremely yin. This is so because the vegetables are eaten raw, and
breaking up the vegetables in the juicer makes them even more yin.
VEGETABLE
SOUPS
Many
people enjoy vegetables in soups.
These are easy to prepare and nutritious. However, soups tend to add too much water to oneÕs food,
which dilutes the digestive juices and interferes with digestion.
For
this reason, please avoid most soups.
If you want to have soup, it needs to be very thick. That is, it should be mainly cooked
vegetables and very little water.
FIBER
Fiber is an
important component of vegetables.
Most of it is cellulose, an insoluble fiber that we cannot digest.
Fiber helps
keep food moving through the intestines and helps prevent constipation, diverticulosis, diverticulitis
and even cancer. Fiber also
assists in the production of vitamins in the intestines and can support the
proliferation of friendly bacteria.
If one does
not eat many vegetables, the diet may lack fiber. This is especially true if one eats mainly refined grains
such as white flour, white bread, white pasta and white rice, all of which have
had their fiber removed.
MINERALS
FROM VEGETABLES
Vegetables
are an essential source of dozens of minerals. Organically grown vegetables generally contain quite a lot
more minerals than commercially grown vegetables. The mineral content also depends upon where and exactly how
the food was grown.
Cooking vegetables greatly enhances the
availability of the minerals in most vegetables by breaking down the tough
vegetable fibers and often by concentrating the food so that more can be eaten
easily. Cooking does not destroy minerals at
all, although it reduces the level of vitamins C and E, to some degree.
Here are
more details about a few of the main minerals found in vegetables.
Iron. Dark green leafy greens and beets are
very high in iron. However, the
iron they contain is not as biologically available as that found in meats and
eggs.
Magnesium and chlorophyl. Leafy vegetables are rich in chlorophyll, a magnesium-containing
substance that plants use to generate energy from sunlight.
In fact, all
vegetables are good sources of magnesium, a mineral everyone needs in abundance
and one that is deficient in most peopleÕs diets today.
Sulfur. The radish, onion and cabbage
families are excellent sources of natural sulfur compounds. Sulfur compounds are essential for
detoxification in the liver, for the brain, for the skin and the health of all
connective tissue (disulfide bonds).
Iodine. This is
found in some vegetables, particularly sea vegetables such as kelp. Everyone on a nutritional balancing
takes kelp capsules, an easy way to consume this superb vegetable. Most people are very deficient in
iodine today. Other sea vegetables
such as nori, wakame, hiiki, dulse and others also
contain plenty of iodine, but have less alginates to
soak up the mercury that these vegetables also contain. For this reason, I only recommend
kelp. For more details, read Kelp on this website.
ORGANICALLY
GROWN ARE USUALLY BEST
Organically
grown food has the following important advantages:
1. It
usually contains much less residue of toxic pesticides and insecticides. It may still contain some pesticide
residue because some blows from one farm to the next, and some remains in the
soil for years if the farmer raised food conventionally in the past.
2. It is
more nutritious than regular produce.
A study published in the Journal
of Applied Nutrition tested organic and commercial produce purchased randomly
in Chicago stores. Compared to the
commercially-grown produce, the organic vegetables had
an average of twice the levels of minerals. Other studies have shown the same thing.
3. Buying
organic food sends a message to farmers that you prefer we not poison the earth
with toxic sprays.
4. Organic
vegetables often taste much better, especially carrots, onions and a few other
vegetables. Eating organic may
turn a non-vegetable eater into a vegetable lover simply because organically
grown tastes better.
5. Organically
grown food often stays fresh longer.
The variety
of organic vegetables available in markets is growing fast. Indeed, this is the fastest growing
sector of the agricultural marketplace.
They cost a little more, but prices are coming down and they are worth
having if you can find them and afford them.
FRESH,
FROZEN OR CANNED?
The best way
to enjoy vegetables is to eat them fresh. They will have the most nutrition in
this form and will often taste best.
Canned
vegetables are next best. They are
much better than no vegetables at all.
However, they are less desirable than most fresh vegetables.
COOKING
METHODS
Pressure-cooking. This is the best method of cooking
vegetables, and even meats. It is
very fast, cleanup is very easy, they taste the best, and most important, the
vegetables are more yang when cooked this way. For details, read Pressure-Cooking on this website.
Other
methods. The other
recommended method is steaming. Occasional baking, roasting or other methods
are okay, but cooking with water and lower temperature cooking are best. If you boil vegetables, you must drink
the water the vegetbles are cooked in because it will
contain a lot of minerals.
More
cooking notes: Steaming vegetables.
The best way is to place a small amount of water in a saucepan. Add the vegetables. Bring the water to a boil, and then
turn down the flame and let them steam in the water for about 30-40 minutes.
Drink the
cooking water in this case, as it will contain many minerals.
Stir-frying vegetables. This is okay but it is high temperature
and you have to cook them enough.
We donÕt want vegetables crunchy.
Seasoning
vegetables. It is best to
cook vegetables without added salt or spices. When the vegetables are cooked, then
add some natural sea salt. On
occasion, if you wish, add a very small amount of mild herbs such as a little
oregano, rosemary, thyme, curry powder, or any of a dozen other mild herbs and
spices.
If you begin
with good quality vegetables, they will have wonderful flavors.
Leftovers. While fresh is best, to save time you may cook enough for
two days. It is best not to keep
leftovers more than a day, as they will deteriorate somewhat.
Fermenting
vegetables. I do not
recommend eating these, except for some sauerkraut. Problems with fermented vegetables are:
1.
They
are very yin because they are a)
raw, and b) combined with bacteria or yeasts, both of which are very yin.
2. Most
fermented foods are toxic with aldehydes. This is potentially a serious problem
if you eat them regularly. A very
bad one is kombucha tea, but the problem extends to kim chi and most others. For more, read Aldehydes and Fermented Foods
on this website.
HOW
MUCH?
I
find that everyone needs to eat 2-3 cups of cooked vegetables, at
least three times daily or about 9-10 cups of cooked vegetables
daily. Measure the amount when
cooked, not raw.
Another way
to say this is to eat about 70% of your diet as cooked vegetables. This may seem like a lot, but it is not
that difficult with a little practice.
Eat some with every meal.
Food
combining. It is best to
eat 10 or more types of vegetables at each meal. Try to mix colors and flavors for variety.
Cooked
vegetables should be the basis for, or staple food for every meal. In addition, you may have one other
type of food – either one protein or one starch. These simple food combinations greatly
assist digestion and utilization of your food.
USE
TOPPINGS IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SIMPLE COOKED VEGETABLES
To
help you eat your vegetables, and especially to help children to eat them, make
it fun. Have a dozen or more
toppings ready to put on your vegetables.
Here are some suggestions for toppings:
Fresh cream, whipped cream or butter
Olive oil
Liquid lecithin
Some plain yogurt
Grated cheese, preferably raw, full-fat
cheese
A little mustard
Other herbs of many kinds
Almond butter mixed with a little water
Thai – peanut butter sauce
Chinese – real soy sauce
A few chopped nuts or seeds
Salad dressings you make yourself or
you buy
Sesame dressing
Pesto sauce
Relishes
To thicken sauces, arrowroot powder is best
CHILDREN
AND VEGETABLES
Many
parents have trouble getting their children to eat vegetables. Here are a few ideas:
1. Rather
than lecture your children, instead set a great example. Eat plenty of vegetables yourself. Ideally, fill two-thirds of your plate
filled with vegetables whenever you eat.
And make sure you enjoy your vegetables. Children will often imitate you.
2. Create tasty
sauces your children enjoy to put over the vegetables. See the
suggestions above for ideas.
3. Disguise
vegetables in other dishes, if needed. For ideas, read the article
entitled Fourteen Ways To Disguise Vegetables.
4. Puree
vegetables if a child does not like the texture of vegetables. To make a puree, first cook vegetables.
Then use a hand blender to puree them. This is better than a regular blender
because the latter requires adding a lot of water to the vegetables, which is
not desirable.
5. Make it
fun. Grow a garden. For young children, carve little faces
on vegetables, slice them creatively, arrange them
creatively on a plate, dip them in cream and in other ways make them attractive
to children.
6. Start
introducing vegetables when children are very young. This can help children to feel they are
just normal food.
7. Beware of
allowing your children to mix and play with children who have learned to hate
vegetables. This is all
too common.
8. For
quick, easy meals and snacks for children and adults, read Fast Food For Nutritional Balancing.
Dried
vegetable capsules. We formerly
recommended these. However, they
are not testing as well at this time.
This applies
to green superfood vegetable powders. They are often rancid, or they go
rancid quickly, even in the refrigerator.
Dried
vegetable capsules are never a substitute for eating loads of cooked
vegetables!
What
about blenders for carrot juice?
Blenders require that you add some water to the juice, which is not
good. Also, they leave the pulp
intact, which is not best. Use a
juicer, not a blender.
You can also
buy fresh carrot juice at the health food store, or at some supermarkets. For much more on this topic, read Carrot Juice on this website.
VEGETABLE
SNACKS – DRIED, FREEZE-DRIED AND CHIPS
In recent
years, health food stores have begun selling plastic containers of dried
vegetables. These are fair but
not that good.
Another
recent innovation are vegetable chips. These
are also fair if they do not contain sugar and chemical additives.
None
of these, however, is a substitute for eating loads of cooked vegetables.
Harmful
vegetables. Vegetables can
occasionally aggravate health conditions.
For example, I suggest avoiding completely the nightshade vegetables – white and red potatoes, tomatoes, all
peppers, including hot peppers, red and green peppers, and eggplant.
Eating them
can aggravate joint pain in some people, and they all contain a poison called solanin. Your
digestion will improve if it is weak, as it is in most people, by eliminating
these vegetables.
HERBS
VERSUS VEGETABLES
Some people
tell me they wonÕt eat many vegetables, but they will sprinkle herbs on their
food. This is not good enough!
Vegetables
differ from herbs and spices in that vegetables are grown as foods. They can be eaten in large quantities
on a daily basis. This is
necessary today if you want optimum health because everyone is mineral-starved
and vegetables are the main source of minerals.
Herbs and
spices are for garnishes, flavoring and some can be
used as drug medicines. Herbs, by
definition, contain slightly toxic substances that make them unsuitable for
everyday eating, except in very small quantities. Do not listen to the lies of some health authorities that
there are simply Ònourishing herbsÓ that you can eat all you want. This is not true.
References
1. J.
Applied Nutrition, 1993:45(1);35-39.
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