Well Being Clinic

As we approach Christmas many of us are starting diets, we either want to lose weight now, so that we may eat more over the festive season or it is to fit into an outfit that would look just great at the works Christmas party. I am not even going to touch the subject of which diets work best as I would be here until Christmas and the year after writing about them. One thing many of us turn to when starting a diet is slimming pills and Vitamin tablets and although I am a believer in Vitamin pills and supplements it has to be said that you cannot beat the real thing, super healthy vegetables packed with nutrition and healthy ingredients.

Generally speaking vegetables are divided into two categories; ‘rough’ and ‘fine’, the fine being leafy vegetables like spinach. Rough vegetables contain twice even three times as much nutritional fibres than fine, however, despite the lower amount of fibres in fine vegetables they are still extremely healthy because they contain many other favourable substances as I will start to explain.

Green leaf vegetables are high in levels of omega-3 which helps prevent heart and vascular disease. Omega-3 is also found in fish so if you are not a big fish eater start adding a few greens to your diet. Green leaf vegetables also contain folic acid which is an important vitamin for the brain, very helpful as you get older and memory loss starts to take over. These are two more commonly known benefits of eating your greens but let me explain a lesser know reason why you should go green.

You have hopefully heard of hemoglobin, it is responsible for transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, such as to the muscles, where it releases its load of oxygen. Chlorophyll contains mineral magnesium that is chemically reminiscent of hemoglobin. Chlorophyll is also vital for photosynthesis, which allows plants to obtain energy from lights and it is what makes the leafs green. Because the two are similar, a diet containing a lot of green leafs does help in preventing the cancerous effect meat can have on the lower intestines. This is why it is important to eat a lot of greens if you’re a meat lover.

Chlorophyll also helps in fighting off Alfa toxins (cancerous substances also known for causing liver cancer). Just half a cup of raw spinach can help reduce your risk of this by as much as 50% due to spinach being a great natural source of chlorophyll. Next time you are out shopping pay attention to your ‘greens’ and remember that the the greener the leafs the more chlorophyll they contain.

Scientists are hopeful that chlorophyllin supplementation will be helpful in decreasing the risk of liver cancer in high-risk populations with unavoidable dietary aflatoxin exposure.