FOOD
T
o most of us, miracle Drugs are the brain-
storms of pharmaceutical geniuses- magic
bullets concocted in a laboratory to use in the
fight against our ailments, large and small. Many sci-
entists are increasingly engaged in a search for a far
different treasure of drugs that were created on this
planet millions of years ago. These drugs come from
other living creatures and plants. They are the stuff
we put in our mouths, often unconsciously, every-
day. These substances, too, are miraculous awesome
in their ability to affect our well-being. In the larger
scheme of things, the miracles these food essenc-
es continually perform inside our cells, outside our
awareness, are very tiny, but they are major miracles
in the lives of cells. They are changing forever their
destiny-and consequently our destiny – with their
cumulative effects. Who can say that these are not
minor miracles? Garlic can kill cancer cells. Substanc-
es in spinach can imprison and paralyze the virus
that otherwise would cause cervical cancer. An ob-
scure compound in asparagus and avocados in test-
tube experiments stopped the proliferation of the
virus responsible for the greatest infectious tragedy
of our day- AIDS. Cabbage compounds can help de-
toxify our bodies of twentieth-century air pollutants
– a job never anticipated at the time of the plant’s
creation. Compounds spun out by plants to fight
off their own destruction, become angels of mercy
inside our bodies to prevent blood clots fomented by
a fatty diet out of control. Particles freed by diges-
tion from the fibrous structure of plants can tell our
liver to cool down its cholesterol output. Chemicals
from the plant kingdom can enter our brains and
affect the transmission of messages among neu-
rons, influencing our mood, our memories, and our
alertness-everything we cherish as distinguishing
our humanness. Make no mistakes about it; eating
is not a trivial event for the billions upon billions of
cells that constitute your being. As scientists, for the
first time in human history have begun to investigate
the act of eating vigorously and appreciate it is of
great consequence; a communion with the nature
that promotes life or death, The choice is increas-
ingly ours, as new scientific discoveries uncover the
enormous impact of our everyday diets on our pros-
pects for health and longevity. New research shows
that food can bestow health and vigour, freeing us
of minor discomforts and protecting us from devas-
tating diseases or it can make us ill and miserable.
Food can quicken the brain and lift our mood. It can
infuse our brains with spurts of electrical energy that
make us think faster and perform better. It can quiet
our distress as surely as a prescription tranquillizer
can, or it can make us drowsy and play havoc with
our concentration. It can pull us out of depression or
reduce us to panic. Food can set in progress silent at-
tacks that erode our joints and clog our arteries- and
it can help reverse the damage. The type of food we
eat as children or young adults may surely alter our
brain chemistry, leaving us in middle age with the
tremors of parkinson’s diseases. Food can promote
aberrant activity within cells that years later end up
as cancerous growths. Conversely, food can release
agents that literally vaporize cancer-causing chemi-
cals or extinguish chain reactions of molecules that
roar through the body, ripping apart the membranes
of the healthy cells, corrupting their genetic good in-
tentions or leaving them to die. Even after abnormal
cell growths have emerged on their way to becoming
cancer, food can cause them to shrink or disappear.
When the wandering cells from the breast cancer
are scouting for new places to attach and grow,
food’s emissaries can create a hostile surface that
cannot be colonized by cancer cells. Foods can also
• Keep the lens of the eye from the becoming
opaque with cataracts in old age
• Dilate air passages, easing breathing
• Rejuvenate cilia, the tiny beating hair-wings in the
lungs that help wave off emphysema and chronic
bronchitis
• Create substances that cause flare-ups of rheu-
matoid arthritis or mute the arthritic’s pain and
swelling
• Trigger headaches and asthma attacks as well as
prevent them
• Increase the stomachs resistance to ulcers
• Reverse the redness, itching and pain of psoriasis
• Stimulate the body to make more natural killer
cells and interferon to ward off infections
• Attack bacteria and viruses with a vigour equal to
that of laboratory made drugs
• Cure diarrhea in infants and constipation in the
elderly
• Alter immunity, chasing away common colds and
hay fever.
In heart disease, food is a prime player. Food can set
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