This is a superstar for sure! Watercress is an aquatic, leafy vegetable that is high in vitamins A, K, C, calcium, iron and zinc, which helps your body heal and also is key in keeping your skin, hair and nails healthy. Besides healing, zinc also stimulates protein and collagen so this is definitely a beautifying green!
Watercress also contains isothiocyanates which are compounds that boost your body’s natural detoxifying capabilities.
Also, very exciting, is a recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study found that eating 85 grams (about the amount that would fill a cereal bowl) of watercress a day significantly reduced cancer damage to white blood cells and increased the body's levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants.
The study showed among those with cancer, damage to their white blood cells decreased by 22.9%. Researchers are beginning to understanding the potential health benefits of this leafy green. Studies indicate it may interfere with a pathway that has already been tightly linked to cancer development.
Tests involving breast cancer survivors showed that the function of the protein HIF, which causes new blood vessels to grow providing the cancer with oxygen and nutrition, was affected and "turned off" in the blood cells of the women who had eaten the watercress. The results of this research provide new insight and hope that simply eating watercress regularly may protect against and perhaps help treat cancer.
That is not to say that simply eating watercress daily will cure cancer – that’s not the case. However, it is a great food to include in your meal plans that can possibly help prevent its development.
Take a Step:
I actually throw some in the blender when I have it in the house and make it part of my protein smoothie. You can also make an interesting and tasty pesto by combining it with olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese and pine nuts or walnuts! You can also just include it in your salad greens.
Until next week I wish you vibrant health!
Ann
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