Vegetable Moderation
They say “everything in moderation”, but rarely about vegetables. Perhaps it’s because they look so innocent. But too many veggies (especially when raw or undercooked) can wreak havoc on digestion and metabolism.
It is especially true for people with metabolic problems, sub-optimal thyroid energy system performance and inflammation issues, and that’s a lot of people. In simple terms, the more exposure to biochemical stress, the more of an issue vegetables can be.
Even for healthy people, too much difficult-to-digest vegetable matter can promote bacterial overgrowth, but this becomes more likely, the more metabolic energy systems get inhibited. In addition, as bacteria spread throughout the intestines, bacterial endotoxin exposure increases, directly interfering with metabolism.
Endotoxin (LPS) exposure directly causes inflammation and can trigger the release of a cascade of stress-related inflammatory hormones. As a result, it can encourage immune system interference, infection, degeneration, ageing and disease.
The greater these issues are in the gastrointestinal tract, the more the liver has to deal with, and the higher the possibility that the inflammatory things will pass into the primary system, impacting other organ systems and worsening the severity of the situation. It is a well-known principle that disease often begins in the digestive system for good reason.
Even though it is true that plants contain valuable nutrients, they also have many defensive chemicals (as well as polyunsaturated fats) which interfere with enzymes, inhibit digestion, and disrupt other processes essential for metabolism. Veggies can also be a significant source of allergens; some contain carcinogens.
Cruciferous vegetables are goitrogenic and can directly interfere with thyroid function. It suppresses metabolism and further fuels stress and inflammation.
Starchy vegetables (especially when undercooked) are great for feeding bacterial overgrowth. And unfortunately, they are also converted to pure glucose. Glucose potentially promotes insulin issues and blood sugar dysregulation, especially combined with polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs). It is a good recipe for increasing stress and disease risk.
Eating well-cooked potatoes with saturated fat like butter or coconut oil can be a safer combination and beneficial for people with a digestive system that can handle it. In addition, having orange juice with a high-fat starchy meal can protect against inflammation and oxidative stress, even when the PUFA content of the food is high.
In the inverted world of today, people are promoting low sugar, high starch, fibrous raw veggies (including skins) as a health system. In many ways, the opposite of what used to be the case back when obesity and “metabolic syndrome” type diseases were far less common. I know correlation is not causation, but there are good arguments showing why this (although not the only reason) is not a coincidence.
You can consume the broth from boiled leafy greens for its nutrients, including magnesium and calcium (without excessive phosphorus, which is a significant cause of inflammation and disease). And cooking the leaves removes many of the interfering chemicals.
Carrots are an exception, as they are best eaten raw for their antimicrobial qualities, helping to remove endotoxin and other stress-promoting substances. Cooked white mushrooms and bamboo shoots have similar beneficial effects, including reducing estrogen excess, which is a significant promoter of disease.
In the proper context, vegetables can be a beneficial part of your diet. However, I think many people are suffering from inflammatory disease and digestive distress, more so as a result of eating too many vegetables (the wrong vegetables, consumed the wrong way) than because they’re not eating enough.
Have you ever experimented with vegetable reduction?
If you like what I say and want more information (including lots of studies) showing ways that too many veggies can cause health problems, please check out some of my other articles, including Don’t Eat The Vegetables! And please share this and sign the email list up top.
Copyright 2021, by Dan M @ CowsEatGrass. All rights reserved (except for quotations and images having their own protected copyrights). This copyright protects author-publisher Dan M’s right to future publication of his work in any manner, in any and all media — utilizing technology now known or hereafter devised — throughout the world in perpetuity. Everything described in this publication is for information purposes only. The author-publisher, Dan M, is not directly or indirectly presenting or recommending any part of this publication’s data as a diagnosis or prescription for any ailment of any reader. If anyone uses this information without the advice of their professional health adviser, they are prescribing for themselves, and the author- publisher assumes no responsibility or liability. Persons using any of this data do so at their own risk and must take personal responsibility for what they don’t know as well as for what they do know.
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