I'm supposed to be getting all of you excited about food…how in the world does cabbage fit into that idea?
I think cabbage is one of those overlooked foods that is easy to include in your diet. And I like it because as a vegetable, it's pretty inexpensive.
Plus, cabbage belongs to the Brassicaceae family, which you may know as the cruciferous vegetables. These include: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, bok choy, mustard, radish, horseradish, and watercress. These vegetables are superstar cancer fighters. In fact, they have even been shown to stop tumor cell growth in breast and endometrial tissue, especially important for women with PCOS.
So now that I hopefully have your attention, what the heck are you going to do with cabbage?
First of all, don't overcook it. All cruciferous vegetables tend to get a strong flavor if overdone, which may be why many people think they don't like them. They never had a chance to try them at their best. I made cabbage rolls this week, which requires you to steam the leaves until they're soft enough to roll. It was a great make-ahead meal for a busy work week.
Think slow cooker! I love mine, and I use it to make soups and casseroles. It's easy to add some chopped cabbage just a few minutes before serving.
Stir-frying is another way to use cabbage.
In other words, keep a head in the fridge and add it to some of your many favorite meals.
If you've got German blood, like me, you may want to think of sauerkraut. If that's a little bit extreme, try this red cabbage and apple recipe. Even the world's most notorius veggie hater might think cabbage is (at least an occasional) possibility with this treat. Be sure to use canola oil for the best omega-3 source.
I have recently discovered a great budget-friendly store that is new to California, Arizona, and Nevada, called Fresh and Easy. It's not really a new store, it's been around in the UK for years under the name Tesco.
I discovered quite by accident that this store, about an hour before closing time, starts to mark its perishables near expiration date, off by 50%. I got out of there with my week's food for almost half of what I normally spend!
Of course, the perishables that don't sell are the ones people either don't like or don't know how to cook, so I'm eating more healthfully by virtue of other peoples' shopping omissions.: )
One of the things I have regularly been coming home with is a big head of cauliflower. It's not that I don't like cauliflower, I do, but there's only so much you can eat raw in a salad or dipped in hummous. So I've been researching other ways to eat it.
I've made cauliflower and pasta, cauliflower curry, and the other night, a really quick and easy cauliflower soup. Cooked correctly, it's got a pleasant flavor that goes well with a lot of things I like to eat.
Cauliflower is a decent source of folate, which you will see repeatedly mentioned on this blog. It's also an excellent source of vitamin C and pantothenic acid. It's part of the anti-cancer family of vegetables including broccoli, cabbbage, and Brussels sprouts.
Here is a link to 324 healthy cauliflower recipes to get you started.
A client recently handed me a supplement called"DIM" and told me her physician gave it to her. The physician said it would help her hyperestrogenemia. She had stopped taking it, and asked if I thought she should resume with it.
Here's the lowdown on DIM, which is the abbreviation for diindolylmethane.
DIM occurs naturally in cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. It was first researched for its cancer-fighting properties; we all know that these vegetables have this quality.
Soon after that, it was discovered that DIM influences estrogen metabolism, promoting the creation of estradiol, or beneficial estrogen (E2) and inhibiting the creation of estrone, or cancer-related estrogen (E1).
DIM may also be an anti-androgen. Although the research I was able to find looked at DIM in the prostate, not in women with PCOS, there is much information on websites selling DIM promoting it as a natural way to reduce facial hair.
If you are considering taking a DIM supplement, be sure to consider the following warnings found on the WebMD website: Special Precautions & Warnings:
Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Diindolylmethane is safe when consumed in the small amounts found in foods. But don’t take larger amounts. Not enough is known about the safety of larger amounts during pregnancy and breast-feeding.
Hormone-sensitive conditions such as breast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, endometriosis, or uterine fibroids: Diindolylmethane might act like estrogen, so there is some concern that it might make hormone-sensitive conditions worse. These conditions include breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer; endometriosis; and uterine fibroids. However, developing research also suggests that diindolylmethane might work against estrogen and could possibly be protective against hormone-dependent cancers. But stay on the safe side. Until more is known, don’t use diindolylmethane if you have a hormone-sensitive condition.
The client who asked the question feels the supplement may actually have helped her facial hair. Note, this is a one-person observation and a testimonial only, it is NOT an endorsement of the supplement.
What I would recommend to this client, and to others who are interested in using DIM:
1. Start with your diet: eat more cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and broccoli. (Click herefor a cauliflower curry recipe).
2. Be sure your diet contains adequate omega-3 fatty acids and is not high in omega-6 fatty acids (discussed many times in other posts on this blog). Omega-3 fatty acids found in both fish and flax have similar effects on estrogen metabolism.
3. Be scientific about the supplement use. Have your hormone levels measured for a baseline, and have them remeasured 6 months after consistent use of the supplement. Too many times, supplements are recommended without any way to evaluate whether or not they are having any effect. In the case of my client, the supplement was sold to her by her physician and there was never any followup scheduled to evaluate how well it was working. (You'd never do that with a blood pressure medication or antipsychotic, would you?!?!?)
4. Don't assume that once you start taking the supplement you do not need to follow a healthy diet. Supplements usually seem to work better in a healthy body where the biochemistry promotes their effectiveness.
5. Even though eating these foods has never been found to be dangerous to pregnant women, because the supplemental form is much more concentrated than what is found in food, it is strongly recommended not to take this supplement if you are trying to conceive or if you are pregnant. As it's been with us since we've been in existence, we are of the opinion that it is not appropriate to be treating hirsutism while you are trying to conceive. There is time for that later.: )
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Le HT, Schaldach CM, Firestone GL, Bjeldanes LF. Plant-derived 3,3'-Diindolylmethane is a strong androgen antagonist in human prostate cancer cells. J Biol Chem. 2003 Jun 6;278(23):21136-45. Epub 2003 Mar 27.
Tadi K, Chang Y, Ashok BT, Chen Y, Moscatello A, Schaefer SD, Schantz SP, Policastro AJ, Geliebter J, Tiwari RK. 3,3'-Diindolylmethane, a cruciferous vegetable derived synthetic anti-proliferative compound in thyroid disease. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Nov 25;337(3):1019-25. Epub 2005 Oct 3.
I'm not at all a fan of the Food Guide Pyramid or the new My Pyramid. I know too much about the politics of how each food got its position in the diagram. And I know that the concept is promoted by the Department of Agriculture, not the Department of Health and Human Services. So it's really about marketing commodities at least as much, if not more than, promoting healthy eating.
Last year at this time it occurred to me that eating patriotically (if you are a citizen of the United States, France, Chile, Czechoslovakia, and the United Kingdom, to name a few), is a fun way to think about what constitutes a healthy choice.
So I went to Google to see if there was anything under the term,"food flag". I found this:
Sausage and pasta were not really what I had in mind, so I scrolled further, and found this:
Absolutely not what I wanted to communicate!
So…I had a little fun and I made my own. I hope you like it!
I posted a bigger version on my website, feel free to use it as long as you keep the copyright notice intact in the lower righthand corner. You can find it at www.afterthediet.com/foodflag.htm.
