All right, yesterday I ranted at ya a bit over the nonsense energy drink phenomenon that is making lots of marketing groups and beverage companies super rich as you swill their heavily caffeinated water. Today I’m gonna report on an equally bogus misrepresentation that has been going on for many years, completely unsupported by science.
For longer than any of us can remember, the alternative herbal medication industry has been another racket. A huge laundry list of herbs such as black cohosh, cayenne, echinacea, garlic, ginkgo, ginseng, milk thistle, saw palmetto, St. John’s Wort, and valerian root have been offered up as remedies for nearly any ailment you can imagine. It’s a modern swap for the old west medicine shows in which the “remedies” were typically at least 50 proof.
Now, to be fair, three of these actually may show a little scientific promise. Current studies show potential from St. John’s Wort in helping symptoms of depression, ginkgo in aiding circulation and perhaps brain function in elderly patients, and saw palmetto in increasing urinary flow. But the majority of herbal remedies show no differences in aiding a galaxy of ailments relative to the effect from a placebo.
Moreover, herbal remedies are unregulated by the FDA. And most importantly, these plant products contain hundreds or thousands of chemical compounds, many of which could be very damaging, particularly over time. Although a certain segment of the population swoons when they hear the words “all natural,” they ought to remember that most toxins are produced by plants, and the foliage in a typical backyard is loaded with enough poisons to kill off the whole neighborhood.
Anyway, clearly people will want their herbs and pay dearly for them, even if they don’t really do anything.
But there’s an upside. Several plants, science is showing, hold great promise for being exceptionally loaded with potentially special health benefits, aside from their ordinary nutritional value. Let’s take two, broccoli and green tea. This is not marketing BS, here, folks, but science.
First, broccoli. As you know, your planet is full of carcinogens (cancer causing agents) such as microbes, ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, and various chemicals like PCBs, arsenic, radon, and so on. And, oh yeah — tobacco. What’s missing in your diet, however, may be the most important link to cancer prevention. Naturally occurring phytochemicals appear to be anticarcinogens, and one strong source of them is broccoli (and some other cruciferous vegetables: cauliflower, cabbage, and so on).
This class of vegetables contains compounds called dithiolethiones such as sulforaphane, abundant in broccoli, that act in animals by activating the production of enzymes in the liver that inhibit or destroy cancerous cells.
And then there’s green tea. If you’re a tea drinker and you know what’s good for you, you’ll steer clear of black tea and drink green tea instead. Green tea contains compounds called cathechins, particularly epigallocatechin gallate. Cancerous cells need certain enzymes in order to metastasize. One of these is called urokinase, and recent studies show that cathechins inhibit it and prevent the spread of cancerous cells throughout the body.
The problem with black tea, which most American tea drinkers drink, is that it’s fermented, which destroys the epigallocatechin gallate and thus the anti-cancer effect. So stick with green tea, folks.
And stick with science for your explanations of what’s good for you on this little planet called Earth. Stay away from the advertising and marketing.