The doctrine of signatures says that plants that resemble a condition or body part can in some way treat or alleviate related illnesses. Following that thinking, walnuts, which look like brains, were thought to ease headaches and mental health issues. Similarly, the scarlet roots of bloodroot were thought to treat diseases of the circulatory system. And since ginseng root looks like a human being, it was thought to aid and strengthen all parts of the human body. Indeed, the very word “ginseng” comes from the Chinese word for “man-root.”

But the doctrine of signatures is controversial and based on theory over scientific fact. So is it true that walnuts are actually good for brain health? What other walnut health benefits are there? And are walnuts good for the environment?

What Are Walnuts?

If you’re a word lover, you might enjoy adding “juglandaceous” to your vocabulary, in case you were missing a word for “of or pertaining to walnuts.” Walnuts are proud members of the Juglans genus, along with about 20 other tree species, including hickories and pecans.

Technically, walnuts can be classified as nuts or dry drupes, which is science’s alliterative way of talking about fruits with a single seed and a dry husk. Walnuts grow in groups of two or three and range between 1.5 and 2 inches in circumference.

The nut of the walnut forms inside a soft green outer husk and a hard shell. Crack that shell open carefully enough, and you’ll behold a whole walnut that resembles a human brain — including wrinkles, folds, and ridges.

Types of Walnuts

There are two main types of walnuts that you’re likely to encounter in your culinary adventures: English walnuts (also known as Persian), and black walnuts.

English or Persian Walnuts

English walnuts are the kind most walnut-eaters are familiar with, as they’re the type you’re likely to see in grocery stores. They have a sweet, mild flavor, and feature prominently in desserts, salads, and many savory dishes.

Although Persian walnuts originated in what is now Iran, they’re often referred to as English walnuts because they were brought to England by the Romans and traded throughout Europe. Since then, their popularity has led to them being grown commercially worldwide.

In the US, English walnut trees grow best in USDA Zones 4–8 (a classification system that tells farmers and gardeners which plants are hardy enough to thrive in various locations). More than 99% of US commercially grown English walnuts come from California, which supplies about half of the world’s walnut trade. Romania has become the main producer and exporter of walnuts in Europe.

Black Walnuts

Black walnuts are native to North America, and almost all of them come from trees growing in the wild rather than in commercial orchards. Since black walnut trees don’t grow in neat, evenly-spaced rows, they’re harvested by hand rather than by machine. The largest black walnut processor is Hammons Black Walnuts in Missouri.

Black walnuts are bolder and sweeter than English walnuts, with a distinctive earthy or musky flavor.

These nuts were and are an important part of Indigenous diets in the regions where they grow. It takes a lot of effort to harvest and remove their tough green husks and then crack open their extremely hard, black-ridged shells. There are even specialty nutcrackers made just for black walnuts.

In addition to eating black walnuts, you can use them for their oil, and for making deep black or brown dyes.

Walnut Nutrition

Like other tree nuts, walnuts have been an important source of plant-based fat and protein throughout much of recorded human history. They contain polyunsaturated fat in the form of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, including roughly 2.5 grams per ounce of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Omega-3s can also reduce the risk of heart disease and contribute to brain and immune health, as well as bringing anti-inflammatory benefits to the body.

Walnuts are high in B vitamins and are a rich source of minerals, including magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, and copper. Of all the tree nuts, walnuts are antioxidant champs, with higher concentrations than any other commonly consumed tree nut. As a whole plant food, they’re also a solid source of fiber.

Black walnuts may pack an even more potent nutritional punch. They’re higher in zinc and selenium than English walnuts and contain more antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The Health Benefits of Walnuts

Measuring the amounts of nutrients found in walnuts is all well and good, but what’s the effect of all that nutritional goodness on human health? There’s some powerful evidence showing that eating walnuts can benefit your heart, digestive system, and, yes, your brain. They may also be able to fight cancer and decrease chronic inflammation.

Walnuts and Heart Health

A 2013 clinical trial found that people who added walnuts to their diet improved the health of their blood vessels. The addition also improved their cholesterol efflux, a process by which the body removes excess cholesterol from blood vessels. Both of these outcomes are beneficial for heart health.

A large study published in 2018 looked at health and dietary outcomes for over 200,000 participants, none of whom had heart disease at the start of the study. After following them for 25 years, about 14,000 of the participants experienced coronary events (heart attacks and strokes). But those who ate at least one serving of walnuts per week had a 13–26% lower risk of heart disease.

Since walnuts are high in calories, some people worry that they might contribute to weight gain and thus increase the risk of heart disease. A 2018 meta-analysis addressed that very concern.

Researchers looked at 26 studies that included over 1,000 participants, to see the effect that walnuts had on lipid levels, weight, and other heart disease risk factors. Their analysis showed that, on average, walnuts actually lowered total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and didn’t impact weight one way or the other.

Walnuts and Digestion

Walnuts can help to improve your gut health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.

A 2018 study found that when healthy people started eating just 43 grams of walnuts a day, after eight weeks, their gut microbiomes became healthier and more diverse.

Another 2018 study found that eating walnuts increased concentrations of beneficial bacteria that produce a substance called butyrate, which is good for intestinal health. Additionally, walnuts can reduce the number of harmful substances produced by certain bacteria that can cause inflammation and increase “bad” LDL cholesterol.

Walnuts and Brain Health

Now we get to the brain. Are walnuts good for cognitive health?

A 2014 review article concluded that walnuts should be included in prevention strategies against the epidemic of cognitive decline and dementia. The phytochemical substances present in walnuts not only decrease oxidative stress and inflammation in brain cells but also boost communication between neurons, stimulate the formation of new neurons, and assist in the removal of harmful proteins associated with the development of dementia.

While human studies have repeatedly shown that diets that include walnuts are associated with improved cognitive performance and better memory, a 2020 mouse study explored the possible mechanisms for this. The study found that walnuts’ antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties suppressed the production of free radicals and enhanced antioxidant protection, consequently lowering the risk of brain degeneration. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)

A 2022 article also reviewed some of the ways walnuts are known to combat neuroinflammation, a major contributor both to aging in general and to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s in particular. It quickly got technical on me, with phrases such as “inhibition of peripheral inflammation mediated by macrophages.” But the bottom line is that walnuts appear to reduce neuroinflammation through a number of synergistic biochemical mechanisms.

Walnuts and Cancer

A 2019 clinical trial studied the impact of walnut consumption on breast cancer growth and survival. Women with confirmed breast cancer cases were divided into two groups, one whose members began eating two ounces of walnuts daily after their initial biopsy, and a control group that did not change their diet.

After about two weeks, further samples were taken from the tumors. In the walnut-consuming group, the expression of 456 specific genes in the tumor was significantly altered to encourage cancer cell death and suppress cell growth and migration processes. This supports the idea that eating walnuts could potentially slow the growth of cancer cells and increase breast cancer survival rates.

A 2020 study found that black walnuts also demonstrate impressive anticancer activity, thanks to compounds such as penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucose and quercetin 3-β-d-glucoside. I tried to remember the names of these compounds by putting them to the tune of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” but I couldn’t get the syllables to match.

Walnuts and Inflammation

Black walnuts, in particular, show amazing anti-inflammatory powers. Two cultivars, named Surprise and Sparrow, demonstrated the ability to suppress inflammatory human white blood cells in a 2019 test-tube study.

But common English walnuts are no slouches in the anti-inflammatory department, either. In 2020, researchers published the results of a two-year trial in which one group of older adults consumed roughly 15% of their daily calories from walnuts, while others ate a similar but walnut-free diet. They found that the walnuts had a health-promoting effect on several inflammatory molecules implicated in cardiovascular disease.

Walnuts may battle inflammation through a compound known as ellagitannins, which can do some very cool anti-inflammatory things. It breaks down in your body to release another compound called ellagic acid. And your gut bacteria then transform this into substances called urolithins, which may have strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Are Walnuts Sustainable?

In general, nuts and other plant-based protein sources produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than animal-based food products. The main issue for walnuts is their need for water since half the English walnuts consumed in the world are grown in California — a state perennially vulnerable to drought.

Each pound of walnuts takes about 1,260 gallons of water, which is less than a pound of almonds or beef (which is kind of in a class by itself, requiring 2,400 gallons of water per pound), but still quite a bit — especially in a water-poor region.

However, walnut trees can also benefit the environment in some important ways. Walnut plantations studied in China increased soil carbon and promoted microbial growth and activities.

And black walnuts are potentially even more sustainable, at least on a small scale, since they are wild-grown and harvested by hand. They require no pesticides and don’t need fossil-fuel-driven machines for harvesting.

Walnut shells also have many industrial uses, some of which are being explored to replace less environmentally friendly alternatives. For example, the shells are being added to substances called geopolymers that can make highly effective insulation.

Walnut shells also have uses as gardening mulch and ground cover, animal bedding, ingredients in the manufacture of activated carbon, abrasive elements in cleaning products, and an energy source for bioethanol production.

Walnuts for the Win

Walnuts are an important tree nut and have been for thousands of years. And while they do use a lot of water, walnuts can also be good for the environment by pulling carbon into the soil. Their impressive nutritional profile makes them a standout for both culinary purposes and medicinal uses. Walnuts are a rich source of healthy fats and protein. And they’ve been found to have benefits for heart, brain, and digestive health, as well as in fighting cancer and inflammation.

For more on how to choose, store, and use walnuts in recipes, check out our article here.

Tell us in the comments:

• How often do you eat walnuts?
• What are your favorite ways to enjoy them?
• What surprised you the most about the health benefits of walnuts?

Featured Image: iStock.com/aslanyus

Read Next:

• You Won’t Believe How Healthy Nuts Are for You
• Are Hazelnuts Good for You? How & Why to Use Hazelnuts

The post Walnuts: Understanding Their Benefits, Nutrition, and Sustainability appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Before long my fever was raging at 104 degrees, and I was so weak I was unable to muster a cry.

I’m grateful that my parents took me to a doctor, who put me on antibiotics. Within hours, my fever was down, and my sickness had reversed.

That antibiotic prescription may have saved my life.

What Exactly Are Antibiotics?

Alexander Fleming, a professor of bacteriology at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, discovered penicillin — the first antibiotic — in 1928.

He’d been experimenting with colonies of Staphylococcus bacteria growing in Petri dishes. And he noticed that one dish had a spot of mold with a clear ring around it. This ring was a secretion from the mold that prevented further bacterial growth. It turned out to be penicillin.

Fleming and his colleagues worked to isolate penicillin, discovering its ability to attack other bacteria, like streptococcus, meningococcus, and diphtheria bacillus.

In later years, researchers developed new antibiotics that were effective in killing different classes of bacteria.

Altogether, antibiotics have saved millions of lives worldwide — overpowering such potentially lethal diseases as meningitis, tuberculosis, and cholera.

When used appropriately, antibiotics are a blessing and a welcome arrow in humanity’s medical quiver. But the reality is that they’re vastly overprescribed.

According to the CDC, in 2021, health care professionals prescribed 211.1 million antibiotic prescriptions — and many of these prescriptions are unnecessary.

Many health care professionals prescribe antibiotics at an alarming rate. Sometimes they prescribe them without making sure the drug will effectively attack whatever germ is involved — or without confirming that it is a bacteria and not a virus. (Antibiotics are completely ineffective against viral infections.)

And this lax approach doesn’t come without consequences.

The Dark Side of Antibiotic Use

Antibiotics don’t just target harmful bacteria in your body. They’re destructive to all microbes, which can leave your body’s natural microbiome unbalanced and damaged.

And this ecosystem won’t always go back to normal unless you consciously make an effort to make it so. Odds are, if your microbiome is currently out of balance, past antibiotic use has significantly contributed to your condition.

It’s also likely that the health care professionals who prescribed those antibiotics to you didn’t discuss how to counteract the collateral destruction of good bacteria in your body.

A couple of years ago, I was considering taking antibiotics to fight a strep infection. I asked my doctor if he could recommend any protocol for repopulating my body with healthy bacteria.

He replied that he didn’t learn anything about that in medical school, so he couldn’t offer me any advice. “My wife took a nutrition class online,” he told me, “so she’d be a better person to ask.”

It’s pretty crazy, if you think about it, that our medical system is so good at destroying a bacterial ecosystem but so ineffective at rebuilding it.

For more on the importance of gut health, and the use of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics, read our in-depth article here.

How Antibiotic Overuse Is Creating “Superbugs”

Not only do antibiotics damage good bacteria, but their overuse encourages the widespread development of “superbugs,” or bacteria that display antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria, you see, are very much like accountants. No matter how much you change the tax laws, there will always be wily accountants who will find a way around them to escape taxes. Similarly, when you increase the dose of antibiotics or engineer new ones, some bacteria will find a way to mutate and resist them.

As a consequence of antibiotic overuse, we’ve had to start turning to “last-line” antibiotics, or medications typically only used as a last resort when the usual medications no longer work.

These drugs are meant to be used sparingly in human medicine to limit bacterial exposure to them, in the hope of preventing the development of antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, because antibiotic resistance has increased, the prescription of last-resort antibiotics has also increased.

Antibiotic Resistance Can Be Deadly

Antibiotic resistance is leading to more and more deaths that were once preventable. That doesn’t sound like the kind of progress we’ve come to expect from the field of medicine.

In the United States, nearly three million people contract an antibiotic-resistant infection each year — with more than 35,000 people dying. Worldwide, antibiotic-resistant microbes are estimated to cause nearly five million deaths per year. And these numbers are rising.

Superbugs now threaten to make many common infections, such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia, lethal once again.

Many public health authorities fear that we could be on the verge of entering into a “post-antibiotic world” that threatens to kill millions of people annually by 2050. Antibiotic resistance already costs over $55 billion in medical treatment and hospitalizations just in the US. And this number is expected to rise dramatically in the coming decades.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the World Health Organization has declared antibiotic resistance to be one of our greatest global threats to health, security, and development.

But is the medical overuse of antibiotics really the primary cause of the rise of the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotics in the Livestock Industry

Factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), were created as a way to keep up with an enormous demand for animal products that’s emerged in the last century.

Modern farms look far different from farms of the past. The images that leap to mind when many of us think of a farm — the iconic red barn or a green pasture full of animals happily grazing in the sun — no longer represent how most farm animals spend their lives.

To say that animals in CAFOs endure close quarters and overpopulation would be an understatement. The average chicken raised for meat has less than one square foot of space per bird. And modern broiler operations have bred birds to grow so quickly that they often become unable to walk. As a result, these birds spend their lives sitting in feces. Animals regularly get sick, injured, and even die as a result of these miserable conditions.

So how do modern CAFOs cope with the threat of disease wiping out their livestock? Antibiotics to the rescue! Antibiotics are routinely administered (through injections or medicated feed) not just to livestock who have become sick, but rather to every single animal housed in these filthy and brutally inhumane conditions.

In addition to helping keep animals alive in an unsanitary environment, antibiotics serve another purpose, too. It turns out that antibiotics make animals gain weight faster — which increases producer profits.

How Do Bacteria Become Antibiotic-Resistant in CAFOs?

When bacteria have continual exposure to low doses of an antibiotic, any of the microbes that are resistant to the drug will survive and reproduce. The rest die off, resulting in a new bacteria population resistant to the antibiotic.

Modern factory farms provide continuous low doses of antibiotics to billions of livestock — thus creating the perfect conditions for breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

If, for some diabolical reason, someone wanted to create conditions that would breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they would be hard-pressed to do better than the conditions prevalent in industrial meat production today.

The Truth About Food Recalls

Already, the breeding of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics in modern meat production is hurting human health in many ways.

Have you ever gotten sick after eating at a restaurant? It’s an experience that’s not easy to forget. You just ate the most delicious meal, yet hours later, you’re regretting ever leaving the house that day.

Foodborne illnesses — such as salmonella, listeria, and E. coli — affect one in six Americans every year. That’s more than 55 million people annually. About 128,000 of them have to be hospitalized for their symptoms. And 3,000 of these people end up dying.

Two of the most common foodborne pathogens, Salmonella and Campylobacter, cause a combined 660,900 antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States each year.

Where do these bacteria come from? The truth is most pathogens that cause food poisoning originate with the intensive, confinement-based livestock production methods used in factory farming.

The US federal government tests supermarket meats to track trends in bacteria and resistance. Recent findings show that 73% of bacteria that FDA testing found on ground turkey were resistant to tetracyclines, the most widely used antibiotic in farm animals and a critical medicine to treat serious bacterial infections in humans.

Additionally, one in five strains of Salmonella in chicken meat were resistant to amoxicillin — the second most frequently used antibiotic on farms and the number one medication prescribed to children. And 1 in every 25 packages of raw chicken is said to have Salmonella contamination, according to the CDC.

E. coli has also been found to contaminate 40% of raw chicken samples tested. But beef is the most common source of E. coli exposure for humans. This bacteria is thought to cause up to 85% of urinary tract infections each year. It’s also a major part of the Salmonella risk.

What About Food Recalls from Vegetables?

“But, wait!” you say. “What about the E. coli that have been found in plant foods, like romaine lettuce or tomatoes? Aren’t vegetables as risky as animal foods?”

It’s a reasonable question to ask, given the media coverage of E. coli outbreaks. But the truth is, E. coli lives in the intestines of animals.

Last I checked, romaine lettuce and tomatoes don’t have intestines. The only way any vegetable can be linked to E. coli is to be contaminated by the feces of animals.

Usually, this contamination happens because there’s a factory farm upstream (or up-manure) from a vegetable farm. It’s remarkable how often these plain facts are not conveyed in media coverage of E. coli scares.

Pathogens, like E. coli and Salmonella, are abundant in animal waste, which can run downhill during a rainstorm or seep into underground aquifers, ultimately getting into nearby water systems that spread the pathogens elsewhere.

These hardy pathogens can spread not only to raw meat products but also to produce (through water or soil contamination) and to cooking surfaces where food is prepared. When you consume this contaminated food, that’s when you may get sick.

The largest multistate E. coli outbreak in over a decade, related to romaine lettuce, occurred in the spring of 2018. It ended up affecting people in 36 states, resulting in 210 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and 5 deaths. What caused it? All evidence points to a large industrial cattle farm near the affected romaine crop in Yuma, Arizona.

How Factory Farming Drives the Problem with Antibiotics

It’s true that antibiotics are overprescribed to people, and that is a problem. But antibiotics are used and abused even more egregiously in animal agriculture.

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015, the world uses about 63,000 tons of antibiotics each year to raise cows, chickens, and pigs. That’s roughly twice as much as the volume of all antibiotics prescribed by doctors globally to humans.

In fact, 80% of the antibiotics used in the United States are not given to sick humans, but to animals on CAFOs.

And antibiotics are typically NOT used to cure disease on CAFOs. Rather, they’re used to promote growth or prevent diseases from keeping animals in unsanitary conditions.

What’s worse, last-resort antibiotics for humans are commonly used in CAFOs. So it’s no wonder that resistant bacteria are rampant in industrial meat products.

Regulatory Efforts Have Been Botched

Attempts have been made to better regulate antibiotic use in CAFOs.

In January 2012, the FDA prohibited the use of cephalosporins in food animals. This didn’t make much difference, though, because this class of antibiotics makes up less than 1% of the antibiotics used in the United States on food animals every year.

A study published by researchers at Ohio State University in 2016 warned of the very real potential of a post-antibiotic age. The study was sparked when bacteria that was resistant to last-line antibiotics was found on a Midwestern hog farm.

The FDA eventually took action in 2017, stating that farmers were no longer allowed to give antibiotics to animals for the purposes of weight gain, nor could they buy antibiotics without the oversight of a veterinarian.

But even after the 2017 attempt to crack down on CAFO antibiotic use, government records show that things haven’t changed as much as many had hoped. While sales of antibiotics for agricultural purposes dropped right after the 2017 ban on use for growth promotion, they’ve somewhat leveled out since then. Officially, there’s no ban on using antibiotics to prevent or treat diseases in animals — and so many animals in CAFOs are unhealthy, that this could potentially allow for very widespread use. The fact is that many companies that pledged to reduce antibiotics in their food supply haven’t followed through.

Beef suppliers for some of the largest fast-food corporations, like McDonald’s and Taco Bell, are still using the highest priority, critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs) on farm animals, despite the risks to human health. USDA testing shows that between 2017 and 2022, all 10 of the biggest meat packers in the US were using at least one HP-CIA on livestock. And according to reporting by The Guardian, the dosages used are identical to the ones used previously to fatten up cattle.

Because there’s no universal ban on antibiotics in the food supply, companies seem likely to continue finding ways to exploit regulatory loopholes.

Antibiotics Aren’t Only Used for Land Animals

Just as we’ve industrialized agriculture for land animals, we’ve done the same to aquatic animals. And although fish aren’t what typically comes to mind when we envision factory farms, that doesn’t mean that farmed fish are living in better conditions. Antibiotic use runs deep in the aquatic environment, too — and so does antibiotic resistance.

Farmed fish are often packed tightly together in huge, unsanitary pools. Just as happens in the factory farming of land animals, the fish are given antibiotics (and other drugs, like pesticides) to prevent the spread of disease.

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials sheds light on this hidden problem. Researchers looked at 27 fish from 11 countries. The researchers found residues of five antibiotics — including tetracycline and other drugs used to treat human infections.

Remarkably enough, they even found residues in farmed fish with an antibiotic-free label. It turns out that farmed fish don’t have to be given antibiotics directly to carry them because many are eating antibiotic-contaminated fish meal.

Levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in seafood have exploded in the past 30 years.

For more on the true cost of farmed fish, see this article.

What Can You Do About Antibiotic Resistance?

The hope, of course, is that one day, governments will take stronger action against antibiotic use on factory farms.

Some countries have done so already, including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. And they are seeing significant reductions in antibiotic overuse.

Whether or not government policy grows more enlightened, we can all take positive actions now to help preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and to support better industrial food practices.

The most significant contribution we can each make is to transition to a plant-powered diet. And for those who opt to consume animal products, it’s best to go organic since the use of antibiotics is not permitted under organic certification. If enough of us make these changes, we’ll drastically reduce consumer support for industrialized animal agriculture — the inhumane industry that’s fueling this public health crisis.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has made avoiding factory-farmed animal products easier than ever with this handy Shop With Your Heart Grocery List.

How to Change the Future Right Now

Antibiotics are a miracle of medicine. But now, thanks to factory farming, antibiotic overuse has become a driver of what could become one of the most terrifying public health emergencies in history.

Unless we take action to preserve the viability of antibiotics for future generations, millions of lives will be lost.

The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria isn’t one that any of us can solve all by ourselves. Slowing its spread is going to take collective action from governments, farmers, corporations, and concerned citizens around the world. It’s also going to take reducing the frequency with which doctors prescribe antibiotics to humans.

But just because you and I can’t solve it all by ourselves doesn’t mean we should refuse to do what we can.

As a concerned citizen who wants a safe future for humanity, the number one step you can take is to boycott factory-farmed animal products. You can also go a step further and urge restaurants and supermarkets to do the same.

We should ensure a future in which, if a crisis arises, every baby’s life can be saved by these miracle drugs the way mine was when I was three months old.

Tell us in the comments below:

• Have you ever encountered antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
• Does this help you understand antibiotic resistance and how antibiotic use on factory farms affects humans?
• What did you find useful, interesting, or surprising in this article?

Featured Image: iStock.com/branex

Read Next:

• Unhealthy Conditions for Farm Animals are — No Surprise — Bad for Humans, Too

The post The Surprising Truth About Antibiotics, Factory Farms, and Food Recalls appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

The list would almost certainly include persistent droughts in many heavily populated parts of the globe, depleted soils, global hunger, nutritional deficiencies, overuse of pesticides, and climate chaos caused by the carbon footprint of burning fossil fuels.

The bad news is you probably don’t have actual magical powers that allow you to create such a food. (If you do, please apply for a job at Food Revolution Network!)

The good news is, that crop already exists. It’s called fonio (pronounced “fone-yo”), and it’s the oldest known cultivated grain in Africa.

While many Indigenous West Africans revere the grain and incorporate it not only into their diets but also into their healing and spiritual practices, its cultivation was discouraged by decades of agricultural and economic policy that sought to “modernize” the region and grow monocropped grains for food and export.

But fonio is making a comeback, growing in popularity around the world. And for good reason. It’s highly nutritious, exceptionally delicious, and environmentally resilient, making it an important crop for arid regions. Those include its home, West Africa, but also many other places around the world prone to prolonged heat and drought: southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, much of the US (including California, Texas, the Midwest, Sunbelt, and Southeast), Southeast Asia, and Australia, among others.

In this article, we’ll explore all things fonio. We’ll look at where and how it grows, its nutritional profile and health benefits, its environmental impacts, and why you might want to add fonio to your diet even if you don’t live in West Africa.

We’ll also cover its versatile culinary uses, and share some fonio-filled recipes.

What Is Fonio?

Fonio, aka Digitaria exilis (Latin for “slender fingers”), has been cultivated in parts of Africa for about 7,000 years. In the Dogon language of Mali, one of the names for the plant means “seed of the universe.” In a narrative strikingly similar to the Big Bang, Dogon mythology describes the Creator bringing the universe into existence by exploding a single fonio grain.

Fonio is a member of the millet family and is related to other grains important in African agriculture, including pearl millet and sorghum. Technically, fonio is a very tiny pseudocereal, like quinoa and buckwheat — which basically means it’s a seed that’s eaten like a grain.

You may have also heard of fonio by one of its other names. These include acha, fundi, findi, iburu, Asian millet, fonio millet, pearl millet, and hungry rice. (That last name is something of a smear, implying that fonio is a lesser food that’s eaten only when there’s not enough rice.)

Fonio is native to West Africa with roughly 70% of the world’s fonio grown in Guinea. Additional production occurs in Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, and several neighboring countries.

Fonio has played a critical role in food security in these countries, especially in rural areas. For reasons that we’ll soon discover, fonio is a reliable staple crop even when other food sources are scarce.

The plant is prized for its resilience, able not just to grow, but to positively thrive in poor soil conditions. As a significant bonus, fonio is also the speed champion of grains. It’s the world’s fastest maturing cereal, going from seed to harvest in as little as 60 days. And it’s drought tolerant. In fact, the less rain the plant receives, the faster it matures.

Types of Fonio

There are two main types of fonio:

• white fonio, called acha (the more common of the two, and quicker cooking)
• black fonio, called iburu (less common, and higher in fiber)

Both types of fonio have a similar taste that’s been described as rich and nutty — similar to couscous (but unlike couscous, fonio is a whole grain, and it’s gluten-free!).

Fonio Nutrition

On a nutrient-by-nutrient basis, fonio appears to be one of the most nutritious of all African cereals, as well as one of the tastiest. A cup of cooked fonio (which requires a quarter cup of dry grain) provides about 170 calories, largely from carbohydrates, and a small amount of protein.

It’s also a rich source of gut-healthy fiber, providing as much as five times as much fiber as a serving of white rice. (I don’t know about you, but I sometimes opt for white rice over brown rice when I’m in a hurry since it cooks much more quickly. Well… fonio cooks even faster yet! So it is a winner by many measures of comparison.)

What about the essential amino acids that make up protein? The acha variety of fonio is particularly rich in sulfur-containing amino acids, like methionine, which is an amino acid that is typically low in legumes. However, similar to whole grains, acha is low in lysine (where legumes excel!). While we love fonio, we don’t recommend that you only eat fonio all day. Variety, including beans and other legumes, is important to ensure you’re receiving a variety of nutrients, including plenty of all the different essential amino acids.

Fonio is also a solid source of several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper. Since fonio is gluten-free, it can substitute for gluten-containing grains such as wheat, barley, and rye for people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Fonio Health Benefits

Just as fonio has been systematically neglected and marginalized by industrialized agriculture, it’s also largely ignored by nutrition researchers. While its powerful nutrient profile is well-documented by modern science, the same is not true of its potential for supporting human health.

To give you a sense of the gap, when I did a search for “fonio nutrition” in the database of the US National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine, I got 17 hits (only one of which even looked at the relationship between fonio and human health). By comparison, “corn nutrition” generated over 12,000 articles, and “sorghum nutrition” almost 1,200.

So in order to make useful statements about how fonio might help you prevent and heal from disease, we have to consider both its nutritional properties and Indigenous healing practices.

In West Africa, fonio is considered to have medicinal properties for several health conditions. In Senegal, fonio has been traditionally used to alleviate conditions such as meteorism (or bloating and abdominal distension caused by an accumulation of gas in the digestive system), constipation, and as a diuretic. Also, the Senegalese use fonio to treat blood clots, diarrhea, loss of appetite, dysentery, stomachache, chicken pox, and asthma.

In Burkina Faso, fonio is known for its slimming properties. Roasted, it’s used for wound healing. And fonio dough is given for relief of symptoms in people with type 2 diabetes.

Based on its nutritional profile and similarity to other pseudocereals, it’s probable that fonio may reduce the risk of developing both type 2 diabetes and some cancers. And with a low glycemic index (in the low 40s, to be imprecise) and favorable amounts of both resistant and nonresistant starch, fonio may help improve blood glucose management in diabetic and prediabetic patients.

Challenges Facing Fonio

We’ve seen that, in many respects, fonio is a near-perfect crop to address hunger on a planet that’s growing increasingly hot and dry. But now it’s time to address the one drawback to fonio: It takes a huge amount of hard human labor to produce.

Labor

In West Africa, where fonio is still a staple food for millions of people, all stages of its growth cycle are very labor-intensive.

Men harvest the grain by uprooting the plant or cutting off the grain head with a homemade knife or sickle. Threshing the grain — separating the edible from inedible parts of the plant — is just as labor-intensive. It’s done by either beating or trampling over the dry straw.

In West African countries, women perform the lion’s share of the work. Women typically do the weeding, collecting seed heads, dehusking the grain, cleaning, drying, and processing as well as selling the fonio. On average, a woman must pound fonio for an hour to dehusk just two pounds of the grain.

Although this unfairly puts a large burden on women to process the fonio and get it ready for market, from a climate perspective, the hard work does pay off. Its impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as soil and water contamination, is minimal to nonexistent. There’s also no need for fuel to run giant harvesters and other agricultural machines, or to power running water for irrigation.

And in a region with chronically high rates of unemployment, some would argue that providing more jobs for people (as opposed to having the work done by machines produced overseas) makes good economic sense, too. Plus, there’s the fact that farmers don’t have to spend money on fertilizers or pesticides since fonio thrives in poor soil and has few natural enemies.

But in terms of growing enough fonio to feed the world, the fact that the crop hasn’t, at least so far, been able to benefit from economies of scale has been a very real stumbling block.

In the 1990s, a Senegalese mechanical engineer named Sanoussi Diakite invented a fonio husking machine that could process eleven pounds of grain in just eight minutes. However, there are very few machines in use, even today, because the $3,000 price tag renders them too expensive for the vast majority of West African farmers.

Low Demand and Rural Depopulation

Capitalizing on fonio’s status as a highly nutritious and easy-to-grow whole grain is a serious challenge facing West African farmers. In addition to the difficulties of production and postharvest processing, there are two other stumbling blocks: low market demand and rural depopulation.

Because demand from the wealthier nations is low (at least before this article was published!), farmers fear not receiving a return on their investments of money and effort. It’s more secure to grow maize, which has a predictable market, or some of the higher-margin cash crops like coffee, bananas, cashews, or cacao, which can be exported to wealthier countries.

Another obstacle is a lack of younger farmers willing to do the work of fonio farming. Many move away from rural areas to seek employment in the cities, sparking a depopulation crisis that continues to spiral as more and more people view farm life as an economic dead end.

Garnering Interest in Fonio

Some people are trying to encourage increased fonio production by creating demand for it in the US and Europe. Making fonio more fashionable, somewhat akin to what’s happened to quinoa, can mean higher profits and more stable income for farmers.

For example, Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam has been instrumental in bringing fonio to US markets. He cofounded Yolélé Foods in order to, quoting from their website, “create economic opportunity for smallholder farming communities; to support their biodiverse, regenerative, and climate-resilient farming systems.”

Yolélé Foods is also building processing facilities and collaborating with governments, intergovernmental agencies, and NGOs to train and equip smallholders for increased productivity through conservation farming.

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to try fonio for yourself, check out some of Yolélé’s fonio products online. If they’re out of stock (as seems to happen from time to time), Aduna makes an organic variety, linked here. The cost tends to be a bit higher than rice or quinoa but is lower than wild rice.

How to Cook Fonio

If you do decide to try fonio (and create more demand for it), you’re in luck. Not only is it super delicious (at least in my opinion), but it cooks super fast (just a few minutes!). This speedy quality also makes it a great option when you want to eat a whole grain but don’t have a long time to wait for one to cook fully.

One cup of fonio cooks in two cups of water and yields four cups of grain!

You can use fonio in any recipe that calls for other types of grains. Examples include grain bowls, porridge, side dishes (like couscous or pilaf), stuffed vegetable recipes, and so on.

Fonio flour has been used to make biscuits, bread, and dumplings. Some researchers have experimented with making sourdough bread using fonio. It’s also possible to make delicious cakes, cookies, and other snack foods and desserts from fonio. And you can use whole meal fonio flour to create gluten-free biscuits and other baked goods.

Fonio Recipes

This ancient West African grain deserves to be making some serious culinary waves because it offers a delightful canvas for kitchen creativity. From savory to slightly sweet, get to know this delightful ancient grain that can add wonderful texture and substantial nutritional value to your meals.

1. Savory Turmeric Fonio Porridge

Savory Turmeric Fonio Porridge feels like a warm and comforting hug for your belly. Full of antioxidant- and anti-inflammatory-rich ingredients, it’s a wonderful breakfast to begin your day on a nourishing note. What’s more, thanks to fonio’s nuttiness, the cashews (or your favorite nut or seed of choice) really bring out its flavor, rounding out the taste profile of this hearty breakfast porridge.

2. Fonio, Fennel, and Fruit Salad

Since fonio is a mild grain, you can use it the same way you would quinoa, brown rice, or millet. In this salad, it’s truly a hit! Fonio, Fennel, and Fruit Salad is bursting with juicy and aromatic citrus fruit and berries, lively fennel, and creamy Macadamia Nut Ricotta. The cherry, or should we say the grain on top, is the subtly sweet fonio that ties it all together. If you are new to working with this grain, we highly recommend you give it a try in this refreshing and vibrant salad!

3. Moroccan-Inspired Fonio Pilaf

Fonio is highly versatile. There are so many ways to enjoy its taste, texture, and nutrients — and this Moroccan-inspired Fonio Pilaf will not disappoint! With savory vegetables, cooling mint, nutty pistachios, and healing spices, this is a highly nourishing all-in-one meal that is simple to prepare and a delight to enjoy as a tasty side dish or a delectable main!

The Bottom Line on Fonio

Fonio is a nutritious and versatile whole grain that has a low environmental impact. It also tastes delicious, cooks quickly, and provides many nutrients that are crucial to human health. Plus, it’s gluten-free and so is suitable for those with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Unfortunately, farmers face many challenges growing fonio because demand is unpredictable, and it’s labor-intensive to harvest and thresh. While some technology is now available to lessen that burden, until demand grows, few farmers will be able to afford to use these machines to increase production.

Increasing awareness of and demand for fonio in industrialized countries can be a win-win. Not only does the crop have the potential to improve the nutritional status of those populations, but increased demand may translate into funding to make harvesting and processing more efficient. If done in an environmentally low-impact way, this could pave the way for greater economic opportunities for farmers in West Africa.

If being a part of that solution sounds good to you, check out the recipes included above and consider making fonio a part of your life.

Tell us in the comments:

• Had you heard of fonio before reading this? If so, where did you first come across it?

• What is the most interesting thing about fonio that you discovered in this article?

• Which fonio recipe will you try?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Karisssa

Read Next:

• Teff: The Tiny but Mighty Grain Worth Knowing About

The post What Is Fonio? Get to Know This Ancient Supergrain from Africa appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Well, that’s the experience I just had researching this article about figs. I thought I knew a lot about this yummy fruit until I started digging into the topic. Spoiler alert: They’re not even fruits! And when I discovered how they get pollinated — that’s a drama worthy of a Game of Thrones episode!

But aside from their storied pollination method, figs have a lot to offer. In addition to being a delicious food, figs have also traditionally been used for healing and for some very practical purposes. For countless generations, people around the world have made poultices from fresh or dried figs, fig leaves, and fig wines. Fig stems and leaves contain latex. And, of course, fig leaves have served as, well, strategically placed garments since the Garden of Eden (at least according to some Renaissance painters).

You can also find mention of figs in both the Bible and the Quran. Biblical writers often use figs as metaphors for the physical and spiritual health of the people, with phrases like “everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree” depicting a time of peace and prosperity. The Quran quotes the prophet Muhammad as telling his followers to eat the fig “as it cures various diseases.”

In this article, we’re going to focus on the culinary uses of figs. We’ll explore what figs are, how they taste (and how they differ from dates), the nutritional value of fresh vs dried, and their health benefits and downsides.

We’ll also look at how they get pollinated (so dramatic!), and if that process might render figs unfit for a vegan diet.

What Are Figs?

Fig trees (or Ficus carica) are native to the Mediterranean region and were one of the first plants to be cultivated.

Figs are members of the mulberry family, which, contrary to the nursery rhyme, is mostly populated by trees, not bushes to “go ‘round and ‘round.” (Other family members include the banyan, breadfruit, jackfruit, and Osage orange.)

A fig fruit (which, again, is not really a fruit) is known as a syconium. According to the Ecological Society of America, “a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence — a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem.” And as we’ll see, it’s that structure that makes its pollination so darn interesting.

Because the fig flower is arranged so unusually, the seeds — which are actually the ovaries of the fig — can’t be pollinated by ordinary flying insects like bees, moths, and butterflies. Instead, it requires a pollinator with the skills of a safecracker who can operate in dark, confined quarters (more on that later).

Types of Figs

There are more than 750 different varieties of fig. Some of the types you’re likely to encounter include Adriatic, Black Mission, Turkish/Brown Turkey, Calimyrna, Kadota, Celeste, and Tiger. Different types have different flavor profiles, and feature in a variety of dishes, from sweet desserts to more savory fare.

The most common dried figs in the US are Black Mission and Golden, both of which are grown in California.

Figs are light green as they grow. They may remain green or change color as they ripen, ranging from yellow to brown to dark purple, depending on the cultivar.

The Differences Between Figs and Dates

Figs and dates are two very different foods that people sometimes get confused with one another, kind of like the actors who play Harry Potter and Frodo. Here are some key differences. Frodo didn’t go to Hogwarts — oops, I mean, here are some key differences between figs and dates.

While figs originated in the Mediterranean region, dates are native to several geographical locations, including North America. Figs grow on trees, while dates are the fruits of palm trees, which are technically grasses and not trees (this is such a genus-bending article!).

Furthermore, figs grow on fig tree branches, while dates grow in clusters on offshoots from the main trunk of the palm tree. Dates contain a single pit, while figs have many small edible seeds.

When it comes to eating the fruits, they’re also quite different. Figs have three times the amount of water as dates, which also makes them much lower in calories (about four times lower, if you’re counting). So dates are a much more concentrated source of carbohydrates, mostly in the form of simple sugars. Dates are also richer sources of some minerals, such as calcium and potassium.

Nutrients in Figs

The good news is figs deliver a lot of essential nutrients. The predominant macronutrient (the one that provides calories) is carbohydrates, but they’re also rich in some vitamins and organic acids. As whole plant foods, they also provide important dietary fiber.

According to the US National Nutrient Database, two medium raw figs contain roughly 3 grams of fiber. Doing the math, this means that if you ate just 8 figs a day and nothing else, you’d still get about half as much fiber as the average US resident consumes in a day. (To be clear, I am NOT recommending the “8 Fig a Day Diet,” although someone could probably write a best-selling diet book with that title.)

However, some researchers have measured much greater amounts of fiber in different fig cultivars. According to the American Botanical Council, two fresh or 4–5 dried figs provide a whopping 12 grams of fiber.

So we have credible authorities telling us that two figs provide 3 grams of fiber, while others say the correct figure is 12 grams of fiber. It reminds me of the old saying, “A person with one watch knows what time it is. A person with two watches… is never quite sure.” So for now, let’s just say that figs are high (potentially very high!) in fiber, and leave it to the good folks at the US National Nutrient Database and the American Botanical Council to duke it out on the details.

Figs are a good source of many bioactive phytonutrients, too, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, and tocopherols.

(Here’s a fun article all about flavonoids, which starts with a weird story about a bunch of soldiers trying to cross a bridge.)

They’re also solid sources of potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, and phosphorus. What’s more, figs provide essential trace elements, including iron, manganese, zinc, and copper.

You’ll get the most nutrients if you don’t peel your figs; the highest concentrations of phytonutrients are in their skin. And darker fig varieties contain more polyphenols and antioxidant power than lighter ones.

Figs also lose some phytonutrients when dried. Studies show a loss of 29% to as much as 86% of the polyphenol content when figs are dried.

Health Benefits of Figs

In the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, figs have long been revered for their contributions to human health and longevity. The fruit, leaves, latex, bark, and roots of fig trees have been used to treat gastrointestinal, respiratory, inflammatory, and cardiovascular disorders, as well as ulcerative diseases and cancers. The various parts of the fig tree possess a wide variety of properties; they can help you poop, relax muscle spasms, fight viruses and bacteria, bring down high blood sugar, and even help your body expel parasites.

And modern scientific research has only added to our understanding of the power of figs to promote health.

Figs and Gut Health

When patients with irritable bowel syndrome add figs to their diet, they often experience decreased symptom occurrence and severity. A 2019 study gave IBS patients 90 grams of dried figs per day for four months. Compared to controls who didn’t get anything, the fig-enhanced group had reduced frequency of pain, less intestinal distention, more frequent pooping, and softer stools. Unsurprisingly, they also reported “a significant increase in quality of life.”

In a 2018 animal study, rats with induced ulcerative colitis were fed a liquid extract containing figs. The treatment had a natural laxative effect but did not lead to diarrhea, and it improved their gastrointestinal functioning. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)

Figs and Diabetes

Figs (and fig leaves) can also be deployed to treat diabetes. A 1998 study found that people with type 1 diabetes who drank tea made from fig leaves were able to lower their blood sugar immediately following meals. And a 2019 study showed that a fig leaf decoction was able to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes by about half as much as the drug metformin (after two months of treatment).

It’s not just the leaves, though — fig fruits contain a compound called abscisic acid (which should definitely be included in spelling bees) that has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels after meals.

Figs and Cognitive Decline

Studies with experimental animals have shown that figs may help us stay sharp and avoid or delay cognitive decline. One animal study compared the effects of a diet that included figs to a fig-free diet in mice that were genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The mice who ate figs did better on memory tests, displayed fewer anxiety behaviors, learned new things more quickly and fully, and had better motor coordination. Furthermore, the fig-eating mice had lower levels of the toxic amyloid beta proteins that are associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Are Figs Vegan?

This may seem like an odd question, but remember that Game of Thrones reference from earlier? It turns out, fig tree pollination is a bit controversial.

You see, there are two types of fig trees: wild and cultivated. And wild-growing fig trees require pollination to bear fruit. The critters that have volunteered for the job are fig wasps, a term that describes any of several hundred different, mosquito-like tiny creatures from the Agaonidae family. Each species of fig wasp pollinates only one variety of fig.

Basically, here’s how it works.

A female wasp, loaded with pollen, flies to an unripe fig and burrows into its center to deposit her eggs. While she’s doing this, two things happen. One, she spreads her pollen onto the female flowers. And two, the effort of fighting her way through the flower strips her of her wings.

Now the fig goes to work, building structures called galls over the wasp eggs and producing seeds in the flowers that don’t contain the eggs. Meanwhile, the mama wasp dies, whereupon her exoskeleton is dissolved by figgy enzymes. (Cue the emotional orchestral music.)

The heroic male wasps hatch first, and travel around the syconium fertilizing their sisters who are still pupating in their galls. (This is definitely HBO-worthy stuff!) Then they dig holes through which the fertilized females can escape with their wings intact. Once the females hatch, they fly off to repeat the process, leaving the males to die in the maturing fig.

Pretty intense family drama, huh?

As a result, some vegans do not eat figs because they don’t want to consume dead wasps, and also because animals died as part of the process that produced them. However, there’s good news if you want to adhere to a vegan diet and still enjoy delicious figginess.

First, the wasps are completely dissolved by the plant enzymes, so you are not likely to encounter a dead insect in your fig. And second, almost all figs produced and sold in the US are of the cultivated variety and are self-pollinating. This means they don’t need the sacrificial services of the fig wasps, and are considered vegan-friendly.

Fig Downsides

Aside from the fig wasp controversy, there are some other things about figs to consider. For one, some people may have to avoid them because of allergic reactions, including oral allergy syndrome. The latex in the plant may also be a source of irritation and allergy, especially if you’re harvesting figs.

Also dried (but not fresh) figs are high in compounds called salicylates, which may cause swelling, itching, hives, worsened asthma, and food intolerance symptoms in people who are sensitive to them.

The other thing about figs is that it takes a lot of water to grow them. Although they’re not as needy as some other crops like citrus, almonds, alfalfa, and pasture grasses, in places straining under multiyear droughts, such as California and Spain, this can be a problem.

On the other hand, fig trees, like almond trees, are drought tolerant, so they can be a good solution in some cases. While they may not bear fruit during times of drought, they can survive until the rains return. There are several strategies growers can implement, including mulching, thinning fruit to help the remaining fruit develop fully, and protecting trees with shade cloth during the hottest parts of the day.

One other challenge with growing figs, and I say this from personal experience, is that for some reason gophers love their roots. So if you aim to grow a fig tree, it may be wise to place a wire gopher barrier in the planting hole to protect the root ball from those sharp little teeth.

Overall, growing figs appear to be a net positive for the environment. Offsetting their water needs and their moderate carbon footprint, they don’t require heavy use of pesticides. Plus, fig trees sequester carbon in their biomass, keeping it out of the air and not contributing to the climate crisis.

We Dig Figs!

As you’ve probably gathered by now, figs are pretty unique! Their biology is fascinating, and the saga of their pollination is dramatic, to say the least. They also offer a wide range of essential nutrients and health benefits. From their versatile culinary uses to their historical uses as healing agents, figs have proven themselves valuable partners to the humans who have loved, cultivated, and revered them for millennia.

If you’re inspired to add more figgy goodness to your diet, we’ve got you covered: Here’s an article all about different ways of preparing and eating figs.

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s the most surprising fig fact you got from this article?

• Can you find fresh figs where you live? If so, what do you do with them?

• Have you ever planted a fig tree?

Featured Image: iStock.com/SGAPhoto

Read Next:

• Are Dates Good For You, or the Planet?
• Are Grapes Good for You?

The post Figs: Are They Good for You and the Planet? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

If so, you might be a plant-based eater. Or (are you sitting down right now?) you might instead adhere to quite the opposite: a carnivore diet.

Carnivore diets — and yes, there are several — have surged in popularity in the last few years. Starting on the far fringe of nutrition and wellness, the carnivore movement has burst more into the mainstream through books by doctors, publicity on podcasts, and testimonials from popular wellness influencers and online personalities.

While low-carb diets are nothing new (Atkins, South Beach, and keto are all examples), carnivore diets take this trend to a whole new level. Instead of just low-carb, many of them are “zero-carb,” promoting the exclusive consumption of animal-derived foods while shunning most (or all) plants.

Carnivore diet advocates claim that eating nothing but animals is the optimal way for humans to eat. They believe that by doing so, you can achieve your ideal weight, grow big muscles, alleviate autoimmune disease, cure brain fog, and improve your digestion. And if the diet seems extremely limiting, don’t worry; advocates believe you can still get every nutrient you need from animal products alone.

So in this article, let’s explore if there is any scientific basis for these carnivore claims. And while we’re at it, we’ll also look at the diet’s environmental impact. Rather than fan the flames of this particular culture war, let’s separate fact from fiction to make well-informed decisions about our nutritional paths.

What Is a Carnivore Diet?

A carnivore diet means getting the vast majority (or all) of your calories from animal products. A typical carnivore menu includes red meat, game meat, fish, poultry, and organ meat. Some versions also include dairy and eggs, or small amounts of low-starch vegetables like avocados and cucumbers, while others do not. The diets are either extremely low-carb or often no-carb, which means, by definition, excluding all or most plant-based foods.

Carnivore diets are similar to certain forms of keto (ketogenic) and Paleo (Paleolithic) diets, which are often meat-heavy and plant-poor, but carnivore dieters go an extra step. Instead of meat being the centerpiece of every meal, it’s basically the only piece. This puts eaters into ketosis, the body’s “emergency state” that allows it to convert stored fat (and, in extreme cases, protein) into ketone bodies that can be used for fuel when the body’s preferred fuel, carbohydrates, isn’t available.

But for die-hard carnivores, avoiding plants isn’t just about achieving ketosis. There’s also an avoidance of plants because of “antinutrients,” a refrain also seen with Dr. Steven Gundry’s warnings against lectins.

Proponents of carnivore diets make the case that animal products are easier to digest than plants. Asking followers to “[T]hink about it from a plants [sic] point of view,” Dr. Paul Saladino claims that since plants can’t run away or fight back, they create their own pesticides to deter over-predation. And so animals like us experience compromised health because those compounds mess with our digestion, preventing us from absorbing some nutrients and causing intestinal and immune distress.

But in reality, many animals do eat plants (and thrive off them). And many of the antinutrients in plants have profound health benefits and are mostly eliminated anyway during cooking.

We’ll see in a bit if the facts support or contradict this dietary approach. First, though, let’s go deeper into the weeds — or the organs, if we’re relying on flesh-based metaphors here — to explore the prominent subtypes of carnivore diet you’re likely to encounter.

Carnivore Diet Subtypes

The Carnivore Diet

The “standard issue” Carnivore Diet was popularized by Shawn Baker, a former orthopedic surgeon and diet influencer. Baker had his medical license revoked in 2017 by the New Mexico Medical Board for ethical violations and “incompetence to practice as a licensee.” (To some of his fans this only proves that Baker is a truth-teller fighting a corrupt system.)

Baker’s version of the diet allows the consumption of only meat, fish, and other animal products like eggs and certain dairy products.

The Ancestral Diet

The Ancestral Diet is similar to the Paleo diet but prioritizes meat over all other foods. In a nod to reality, it includes seasonal fruits and vegetables in small amounts. It also allows some dairy and fermented foods. Ancestral Diet adherents characterize it as more than just a diet; they see it as a comprehensive philosophy of living that includes a return to nature.

Pros of the Ancestral Diet include avoidance of processed foods and inclusion, although limited, of some plant-based foods.

The Lion Diet

The Lion Diet is where carnivore meets elimination diets. Those on a Lion Diet limit themselves to beef, salt, and water. It got a lot of press when Mikhaila Peterson, daughter of best-selling Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, promoted it as a cure for depression, rheumatoid arthritis, muscle weakness, night sweats, asthma, insomnia, PTSD… and a whole lot more. Jordan Peterson adopted the diet as well, and promoted it on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and his own popular YouTube channel.

The Nose-to-Tail Diet

The Nose-to-Tail Diet has been popularized by Dr. Paul Saladino and Brian Johnson, an online influencer known as the “Liver King” due to his propensity to consume raw liver on the regular. The muscle-bound Johnson has nothing but scorn for most modern men, whom he accuses of being submissive, sub-primal, and weak. They have been brainwashed to eat vegetables rather than dominate, kill, and eat other species, he argues, and so lead mediocre and unsatisfying lives.

Theories of human development aside, this diet consists of eating all parts of the animal, including organ meats, connective tissue, and bone marrow (essentially nose-to-tail of an animal), as well as some fermented plant foods.

The Plant-Based Backlash

When you listen to the rhetoric of some of the carnivore movement’s most enthusiastic proponents, you might get the idea that, in addition to any health benefit or scientific claim, there’s also a significant element of backlash to plant-based diets.

Traditionally, meat-eating has been associated with masculinity and machismo (although films like The Game Changers are starting to challenge that association), so the rise of plant-based eating has triggered a “culture war” response that goes far beyond nutrition. There’s a lot of name-calling and invitations to settle differences through MMA cage matches, for example.

I haven’t personally been invited into the octagon by a carnivore enthusiast to duke it out, but I do have a number of friends who adopted a carnivore diet approach and initially experienced some of the promised benefits. Their inflammation lessened, and most lost weight — at first.

None of them stuck with it long-term, because they found it — and I’m quoting them all here — “gross.” But still, their stories left me with questions. How could they possibly benefit, even for a short time, from a diet so diametrically opposed to the plant-based diet that most science shows is the healthiest for humans? Isn’t too much meat bad for everything from heart disease to type 2 diabetes to obesity?

Let’s dive in to explore the health claims of carnivore diets, and what the research really says about eating this way.

Health Claims of Carnivore Diets

Carnivore advocates claim a broad array of health benefits. I don’t have the space here to examine every single claim, so I’ll focus on the most common ones: weight loss, brain health, reduced inflammation and remission of autoimmune disease, and improved digestion.

Spoiler alert: The scientific evidence supporting these claims is — and I’m being extremely charitable here — limited and inconclusive. There are no long-term, large-scale clinical trials that specifically examine the effects of carnivore diets on any of these aspects of health. Instead, there are a lot of anecdotes, a few online surveys, and small studies of limited scope and duration.

Carnivore Diets and Weight Loss

Currently, no studies have been conducted that looked at weight loss with carnivore diets. However, the theory that low-carb diets are supposed to lead to weight loss is known as the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model (CIM) of obesity.

Proponents assert that eating carbs triggers a release of insulin, which, according to this model, leads to hunger and overeating, and ultimately, fat storage and excess weight.

One study did show that low-carb diets high in animal foods can lead to weight loss. But, the diet did include some plant foods. The bigger issue, though, was its severe calorie restriction. The study’s average low-carb dieter took in fewer than 1,500 calories per day — an amount that all but guarantees weight loss in most people, regardless of the foods consumed.

A clinical trial published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine in 2021 tested a low-fat, minimally processed, plant-based diet against a low-carb, minimally processed, animal-based diet.

Participants could eat as much of their assigned diet as they wanted — no limits other than personal preference and satiety. And the results directly contradicted the predictions of the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model. Those eating the low-fat diet consumed almost 700 fewer calories per day than the low-carb eaters. “Despite the large differences in calorie intake,” the researchers reported that “participants (expressed) no differences in hunger, enjoyment of meals, or fullness between the two diets. Participants lost weight on both diets, but only the low-fat diet led to a significant loss of body fat.”

Indeed, other studies have shown that the most weight-loss-friendly foods are, in fact, plants. A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition even concluded that each additional year of adopting a vegan diet decreases the risk of obesity by 7%.

Meanwhile, increased fat intake and high-fat diets (looking at you here, carnivore diets) actually have a strong association with increased body weight and risk of overweight and obesity.

Carnivore Diet and Brain Health

Proponents of carnivore diets often describe better cognitive function and improved mental clarity. But, as of this writing, no scientific studies have been conducted to investigate these claims.

The only evidence I could find was a survey of people who belonged to carnivore groups on social media. Of course, a survey is inherently lacking objectivity in some pretty big ways. For one thing, only people who had been on the diet for at least six months were invited to take the survey. It stands to reason that if someone had a worsening of symptoms after, say, two months — they would probably stop the diet. And, for another, the group of people “surveyed” were themselves members of identity groups that subscribe to the ideology of the diet enough to belong to a group of fellow adherents.

This seems kind of like asking a group of fish if they enjoy swimming; you’re unlikely to get an unbiased opinion.

Nevertheless, in the context of this less-than-objective methodology, many of the survey respondents reported high levels of satisfaction and improvements in overall health and well-being, including cognitive and psychiatric symptoms, which they attributed to their diet.

There are many possible reasons for these alleged improvements. Of course, the carnivore diet could have been helpful, at least in the short run, for this particular collection of people. Or it may be a case of the placebo effect, which can, at least in the short run, lead to dramatic benefits for a great many people.

But mental gains can also be plausibly explained by what carnivore dieters have eliminated: substances like alcohol, refined sugars, and processed foods. It’s not hard to imagine many people feeling better after giving those up.

Diet is one of the key lifestyle factors that can be modified to significantly reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. But it’s plant-based diets that contain key nutrients like polyphenols and fiber that protect against the insulin resistance that can lead to Alzheimer’s.

There’s also solid evidence that plant-based foods can boost mood. Plus, the more saturated fat (remember that for most people the vast majority of the saturated fat in their diet comes from animal products) that people consume, the higher their risk of developing neurodegenerative disorders. Mono- and polyunsaturated plant fats, on the other hand, reduce that risk.

If there’s one food that you can think of as a brain superfood, it’s actually leafy greens — although greens are not allowed on a strict carnivore diet. However, in one study, those who ate the most greens were the proud owners of brains that were functionally 11 years younger than those who ate the fewest.

Other brain protectors include berries — eating blueberries and strawberries delayed cognitive decline by two and a half years in one study. Some interpretations of the carnivore diets do allow fruit — ostensibly because plants “want” us to eat their fruit to spread their seeds.

Carnivore Diets, Inflammation, and Autoimmune Conditions

In the same somewhat dubious survey discussed above, some respondents wrote that adopting a carnivore diet led to improvements in various inflammatory conditions. Out of hundreds of survey respondents with prior autoimmune conditions, 10% claimed complete resolution, and another 14% reported improvement.

Mikhaila Peterson also claims she healed her autoimmune issues through the “Lion Diet” and referenced those survey results in her TEDx talk as corroborating evidence. (TEDx refused to publish her talk, explaining that it failed to adhere to their content guidelines and lacked nuance, offering a purely anecdotal experience and no actual scientific evidence.)

A core mechanism of autoimmune disease is a malfunctioning immune system. While we don’t yet understand the causes and initial triggers of many autoimmune conditions, we know that lifestyle choices, particularly related to food, can play a key role in managing and, in some cases, even reversing many of these diseases.

But it’s plant-based diets that have been proven to help with inflammation and autoimmune disease. Meat and high-fat, animal protein-rich diets on the other hand, especially red meat, have consistently been associated with more inflammation.

So how do we reconcile the science with the experience of Mikhaila Peterson and other carnivore diet adherents? It’s possible that a body in an inflamed state could find certain compounds in plants triggering, and that, in some cases, taking a break could provide relief.

But this is not a great long-term solution. Rather than live in a metaphorical “food bubble” in which nothing challenges the chronically inflamed body, the goal should be to bring down inflammation so that eating plants — which offer myriad powerful health benefits — doesn’t cause symptoms. Traditional elimination diets can allow for a more methodical and less draconian approach.

Carnivore Diets and Digestion

A study that is objectively even less rigorous than the social media study already mentioned asked a couple hundred carnivore dieters about their “beliefs and experiences.” Here as well, dieters claimed improvements in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Crohn’s disease.

But again, the vast majority of objective research points to carnivorous dietary patterns contributing to a greater likelihood of IBD, not remission from it.

Advocates of carnivore diets claim that plant foods are high in toxins and harmful compounds like antinutrients, those nasty compounds plants produce to discourage us from eating them.

And it’s true that when isolated from the foods that contain them, antinutrients may lead to some unwanted effects. But when consumed as part of a varied whole foods diet, they participate in diverse and complex interactions with vitamins, minerals, and the gut microbiome, and can actually contribute to significant health benefits.

Another explanation for why some people experience improved digestion during the initial phase of a carnivore diet is the complete absence of fiber. However, if someone was already consuming low amounts of fiber — and only 6% of the US population gets the recommended amount — they likely lacked the microbial diversity required to adequately digest that fiber.

Fiber increases microbial diversity and gut health; studies show those consuming the most fermented and fiber-rich plant foods had a more diverse gut microbiome — and a stronger immune system, with decreased inflammatory markers — compared to those who consumed less.

Meat, of course, contains zero fiber, and therefore a meat-only diet is not a recipe for long-term health. On the contrary, one meta-analysis study found every 10 grams of fiber consumed per day cuts mortality risk by 10%.

Carnivore Diet Risks and Side Effects

We’ve looked at the purported benefits of carnivore diets. But what about the risks? Is there the possibility of unwanted and serious side effects?

In fact, there are many anecdotal reports of unpleasant and sometimes dangerous side effects with extremely low-carb or zero-carb diets. These include diarrhea, constipation, weight gain, muscle cramps, hair loss or thinning, insomnia, dry skin, itchiness, heart rate changes, brittle fingernails, and menstrual irregularity.

Bowel irregularity, whether diarrhea or constipation, is typically caused by a lack of dietary fiber. But many of the other symptoms are attributable to nutritional deficiencies and imbalances that can occur in any extreme diet that lacks diversity. The carnivore diet, in particular, is missing not just fiber but also antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and prebiotics — all of which are essential for good health.

Without vitamin C from fruits, vegetables, or supplements, carnivore dieters are actually at risk for scurvy, putting them in the company of 17th-century British sailors. And vitamin C and other antioxidants are important for combating free radicals in the body. How serious is that? The buildup of free radicals, or “oxidative stress,” is a leading cause of deterioration and disease, including memory loss, autoimmune disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

Most dietitians, even those who don’t advocate for plant-based diets, consider carnivore diets dangerous for humans. Animal protein is associated with heart disease and poor markers of metabolic health such as type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Red and processed meats are considered carcinogenic, with particular contributions to colorectal cancer. And as we saw earlier, high animal product consumption is also associated with Alzheimer’s, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases.

Meat also promotes the growth of unfavorable bacteria that leads to the production of TMAO, which inflames the endothelium (the inner lining of blood vessels) and further promotes heart disease.

And high-meat diets can deliver worrisome quantities of heme iron, which has prooxidant effects that promote cardiovascular disease.

Eating plant foods, on the other hand, has consistently contributed to a reduction in chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer while promoting longevity.

All in all, relying almost solely on animal-derived foods goes against most medical and nutrition advice which is that eating more whole plant foods and less meat, eggs, and dairy is actually the healthiest way to eat.

Carnivore Diets’ Environmental Impacts

When we evaluate the health of a diet, it makes sense to look at how it impacts not just the individuals following it, but the planet as a whole. And eating mostly meat has serious implications for the environment.

Adopting a meat-free, and especially beef-free, diet is one of the most powerful things an individual can do to help fight climate change. That’s because animal agriculture is like a protein factory in reverse, cycling amino acids through animals instead of sourcing them directly from plants.

Shifting from animal to plant foods can also significantly decrease the amount of land required for agriculture, which in turn can lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Animal agriculture is a leading cause of deforestation, especially in the Amazon rainforest — one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Forests are being cut down not just to provide grazing land for cattle, but also to create fields to grow crops that get turned into animal feed. And grass-fed meat is not much better either, as it can use even more land per pound of food produced.

Additionally, most cattle feed in the industrialized world is bioengineered (aka GMO), which contributes to a number of environmental and health problems globally.

At the risk of stating the obvious, eating nothing but animal products is not great for the animals either. More demand for meat means more animals slaughtered to meet that demand. And the overwhelming majority of that meat is produced in factory farms.

Animals so confined are given huge quantities of antibiotics to fatten them up and to keep them alive — drugs that are contributing to the alarming rise in antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

In short, what’s bad for the animals also ends up being bad for us.

Carnivore Diets Are Not Healthy — for People or the Planet

The carnivore diet’s alleged benefits have sparked fierce debate in the wellness world. But the scientific basis for these claims remains limited and inconclusive at best. While some individuals report success alleviating autoimmune conditions and experiencing weight loss through total elimination of carbohydrates, and of course I wish these people nothing but the best of health, there has so far not been a single comprehensive study suggesting that the results are replicable or sustainable.

Given what we do know about nutrition, it seems likely that you can achieve similar or better results using moderate caloric restriction, or with an elimination diet. And both of these methods are likely going to be far more healthful than eating nothing but meat and other animal products.

There are also concerns about potential nutritional deficiencies, chronic disease impact, and environmental ethics of meat-centric diets. From a global perspective, these diets magnify the environmental harms associated with meat production. And by eliminating plant foods, carnivore diet followers are missing out on powerful dietary compounds proven to increase longevity and improve health outcomes.

As researchers continue to investigate the impact of diet on our well-being, it’s evident that incorporating a wide array of nutrient sources, not limiting them, holds the key to promoting both individual health and global sustainability.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you know anyone who’s adopted a carnivore diet?
• What do you think of the carnivore diet?
• How much do environmental concerns influence what you eat?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Luke Chan

Read Next:

• What’s All Wrong About Annals Of Internal Medicine’s Red and Processed Meat Advice

The post The Carnivore Diet: What the Research Really Says About its Impact on People and the Planet appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

But then there are topics like this. “Inconvenient truths” that I’d prefer didn’t exist. So here it is: Dark chocolate, one of the most beloved foods by health enthusiasts and gourmands alike, has a serious heavy metal problem.

You may, like many other people, have a special place in your heart for chocolate, in general, and dark chocolate, in particular. It’s a delightful treat. It can lift your mood. It’s rich in antioxidants and other powerful phytochemicals linked to good health. It’s like the Dolly Parton of food — the one good thing that almost everyone can agree on.

However, recent studies have unveiled a disconcerting truth: Certain dark chocolate products contain worrisome levels of two hazardous heavy metals — lead and cadmium. These metals can cause a variety of health complications in people of all ages.

And in case you were thinking, “Well, that’s too bad, but I buy only the finest quality and highest cacao, organic dark chocolates,” I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Some of the most contaminated chocolates are popular organic varieties. And the higher the cacao content, the more cadmium and lead they are likely to contain.

In this article, I’ll take an unflinching look at the latest research on heavy metals in chocolate. You’ll see why heavy metals are dangerous to your health — and find out how they get into chocolate in the first place. You’ll also see that not all chocolate brands are equally problematic. (I’ll name names and point you to original research so you can make informed choices.) And we’ll look at some of the experimental strategies agronomists and other scientists are using to reduce the amount of heavy metals in the world’s beloved chocolate supply.

The Research on Heavy Metals in Chocolate

Given all the positive press about the health benefits of dark chocolate, the news that many dark chocolate bars contain traces of heavy metals may come as a surprise. But research about this goes back a long time.

In 2005, researchers discovered that while Nigerian cocoa beans in their shells contained virtually no lead, by the time they were turned into finished cocoa products (i.e., chocolate bars and cocoa powder), they had some of the highest lead levels of any food.

And tests published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018, As You Sow in 2022, and Consumer Reports in 2023 confirmed that there are concerning amounts of lead and cadmium across many of the world’s best-known brands.

Since there’s no threshold for lead and cadmium safety mandated by the US government, the researchers relied on California’s standards for how much is too much. The California maximum allowable dose levels (MADLs) are, per day, no more than 0.5 mcg (short for “microgram”) for lead and 4.1 mcg for cadmium. (Researchers who have figured out how to get their keyboards to produce non-Latin characters often refer to a mcg as a µg.)

Consumer Reports Data on Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate

Consumer Reports, the nonprofit known for its consumer ratings magazine that can help you purchase a car or a toaster, used its testing lab to measure cadmium and lead levels in some of the most recognized chocolate brands in the US. The brands tested include Trader Joe’s, Lily’s, Lindt, and Dove. Many other brands were also tested, including organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate, such as Equal Exchange, Beyond Good, and Alter Eco.

The Consumer Reports lab found that out of the 28 dark chocolate bars, eight had more than 100% of the MADL of cadmium in a single ounce. Ten had more than 100% of the daily allowable dose of lead per ounce. And five contained more than 100% of both cadmium and lead.

Chocolate bars with relatively safe amounts of heavy metals included:

• Mast Organic Dark Chocolate 80% Cacao
• Taza Organic Deliciously Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate 86% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate Twilight Delight 72% Cacao
• Valrhona Abinao Dark Chocolate 85% Cacao

As You Sow Data on Heavy Metals in Chocolate

As You Sow is an organization dedicated to helping shareholders in large public companies hold those companies accountable for aligning their environmental, social, and financial policies with their stated values. Between 2014 and 2017, the organization tested many chocolate bars, both dark and milk chocolate, for cadmium and lead.

As You Sow’s methodology differed slightly from the one used by Consumer Reports. Instead of reporting how much of the daily safe limit (California’s MADL) of the heavy metals was in a single ounce, they calculated the percentage based on the serving size suggested on the label of each product.

They also tested very recognizable brands like Hershey’s, Godiva, Endangered Species, and others, in a comprehensive study that looked at 469 different chocolate bars.

Out of those 469 chocolate bars tested, 285 had cadmium or lead above the maximum allowable dose per serving. Specifically, 191 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of cadmium, 285 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of lead, and 171 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of both cadmium and lead.

The safest chocolate options, according to As You Sow, were:

• Endangered Species Natural Dark Chocolate 72% Cocoa — (neither lead nor cadmium was detected)
• Ojio Organic Cacao Nibs Ethically Sourced: Peru — (no lead detected, 0.2 mcg of cadmium)
• 365 Everyday Value Organic Dark Chocolate Coconut 56% Cacao — (0.5 mcg lead, no cadmium detected)
• Chocolove Chilies & Cherries in Dark Chocolate 55% Cocoa — (0.2 mcg lead, 0.1 mcg cadmium)
• Snickers Bar (no lead detected, 0.6 mcg cadmium)

Why Heavy Metals are Dangerous

At this point, you may be wondering if heavy metals in chocolate are a big deal. After all, not all metals are dangerous. Your body actually needs small amounts of minerals like zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and manganese in order to function properly.

And the amounts are so small. I mean, how much even is half a microgram? I looked it up, and a microgram is one-millionth of a gram. Do you know what weighs a gram? A raisin. So then half a microgram of lead — one two-millionth of a raisin’s worth — really doesn’t seem like much. But should you be concerned?

In a word, yes. First, even essential metals can be harmful in excess. And heavy metals aren’t safe for human consumption, let alone necessary, even in tiny quantities. Lead and cadmium are two of the heavy metals most commonly associated with human poisoning, the other two being mercury and arsenic.

These metals can get into our bodies in a number of ways: through industrial exposure, polluted air or water, medications, poorly made food containers, and exposure to lead-based paints. And in the case of cadmium and lead, via contaminated food.

Cadmium Health Effects

Cadmium (whose elemental abbreviation is Cd, although it has nothing to do with disks of music or with bank accounts) can be found in household waste, industrial discharges, and — here’s where it affects chocolate — soil.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies cadmium as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning that it’s known to cause cancer in humans.

When you ingest cadmium in solid form, your body goes to work to rid itself of the toxin. First, your liver metabolizes it and then sends it to your kidneys for filtering, and then it gets forwarded to your bladder for excretion via urine. Problems occur when the amount of cadmium exceeds your kidneys’ ability to detoxify it, which can lead to kidney disease.

When cadmium is inhaled, it can cause lung cancer and emphysema.

Lead Health Effects

Lead (elemental abbreviation Pb, from the Latin “plumbum”, which actually IS related to “plumber,” on account of the fact that the early plumbers used lead pipes) can be found in our soil, drinking water (via contact with old plumbing pipes), paint in US homes built before 1978, and occupational exposure.

The IARC puts inorganic lead compounds in Group 2A, meaning they are a “probable human carcinogen.” But there are many disorders related to lead exposure that aren’t cancer.

In adults, acute symptoms of lead poisoning include gastrointestinal issues, musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as irritability, fatigue, and anxiety. In some cases, lead exposure can mimic the effects of PTSD even in the absence of a traumatic event.

And as harmful as it is to adults, lead exposure in children is even worse. There’s no safe amount for children in whom exposure may cause deficits in cognitive development, behavioral problems, hearing loss, and acute encephalopathy (an umbrella term for any damage to the brain).

In children, lead exposure can also affect the kidneys and gastrointestinal system, and can even lead to anemia by interfering with vitamin D metabolism and hemoglobin synthesis.

How Do Heavy Metals Get in Chocolate?

When I first heard about this issue, I wanted to know: “Who’s putting toxic heavy metals into my dark chocolate? And how can we stop them?”

Unfortunately, it’s not a simple problem to solve. Lead and cadmium both occur naturally in the earth’s crust, and cadmium, in particular, exists in soil. Humans have made things much worse, however, through activities like mining, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture. Modern-day levels of these metals have not only been increasing in soil but also in water and air.

As cacao trees grow, they absorb soil nutrients through their roots. And they also absorb cadmium, which accumulates in the tree as it grows. Not all cacao-producing regions are equal in soil cadmium, which explains why some of the chocolates had very little cadmium while others were much higher.

Lead, on the other hand, hardly gets into the tree’s tissues at all. Researchers have found almost no lead in the interior of cacao beans while they’re still on the tree. Instead, the lead accumulated on the outer shell.

What’s more, lead levels were low soon after beans were picked and removed from pods, but increased as beans dried in the sun for days, as lead-contaminated dust and dirt settled on the beans. During fermentation, the sticky pulp from the bean can also attract particles of lead from the environment, which are transferred to the nibs during sorting and processing and end up in the final chocolate product.

Where’s all this lead coming from? Researchers tested high-lead beans from Nigeria and discovered that the lead isotopes implicated fumes and particulates from leaded gasoline. Subsequent investigation found that the harvested beans were typically dried next to the road, to make transport easier and more efficient.

Efforts to Reduce Heavy Metal Content in Chocolate

As you were reading the previous section, some ideas may have already begun occurring to you about how to decrease cadmium and lead levels in chocolate. And agronomists and industrial engineers have also come up with some recommendations for chocolate companies to adopt.

To reduce lead contamination, manufacturers are advised to minimize soil contact with cacao beans during drying, as well as to dry them far away from roads (especially in regions where leaded gasoline is still used) and other lead-rich environments. Food scientists are also developing methods of removing some of the lead as part of the cleaning process at factories.

Cadmium is a harder problem since it originates in the soil. Chocolate companies can make a dent by conducting soil surveys to measure cadmium in various soils, and can then choose to source more beans from regions with lower levels of this element.

In some cases, cadmium-heavy soil can be treated, or even removed to make room for cleaner soil.

And since cadmium accumulates as trees age, cacao farmers are urged to replace older cacao trees with younger ones.

What Can You Do as a Chocolate Consumer?

If you’re a fan of dark chocolate, does this mean you have to wave goodbye to one of your favorite treats? Not necessarily. There are several steps you can take to minimize your exposure without abstaining.

First, it may help to balance your chocolate consumption with a varied and nutritious diet. That involves eating a lot of health-promoting foods and keeping chocolate consumption low. (After all, the chocolate bar wasn’t invented until 1847 — before that, for most people, cocoa was a condiment rather than a food in its own right.)

If you’re eating dark chocolate for its cardiovascular and mental health benefits, you’ll be pleased to know that research shows you can still reap those benefits with as little as one-third of an ounce per day. At that level, many of the offending bars no longer tip your lead and cadmium consumption over the MADL threshold.

Opting for the dark chocolate brands that contain lower levels of heavy metals, as identified by Consumer Reports and As You Sow, can also help you protect your health. And some experts recommend choosing chocolates with a lower percentage of cacao. Dark chocolate tends to be higher in heavy metals, probably because of its higher cacao content. Be aware, though, that this strategy may have the side effect of increasing the amount of sugar and fat you consume from the bar, and depending on the brand, may mean that you’re also consuming dairy.

Finally, you may want to restrict children’s consumption of chocolate, given their heightened vulnerability to heavy metals, and the long-term damage those elements can do.

You can find out more about the health benefits of chocolate and how to avoid choosing brands that rely on child slavery in our article: The Truth About Chocolate: How to Choose Healthy and Ethically Produced Cacao Products.

The Bottom Line About Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate

Recent studies reveal dangerous levels of lead and cadmium in many dark chocolate brands. These metals can present significant health risks, including potential heavy metal poisoning and severe organ damage. Cadmium contamination comes mainly from the soil in which cacao trees grow, while lead particles accumulate during drying and fermentation in lead-contaminated environments.

But while the chocolate industry grapples with this problem by altering its harvesting and manufacturing processes, there are things you can do to reduce your exposure to heavy metals in chocolate. These strategies include maintaining a diverse diet in which dark chocolate plays a small part, choosing chocolate brands with lower heavy metal levels, and limiting children’s chocolate consumption.

By staying informed and making conscious choices, you can still savor the goodness of dark chocolate from time to time, while safeguarding your — and your family’s — well-being. Together, with industry advancements and individual efforts, we can ensure a healthier and happier chocolate experience for all.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you eat dark chocolate on a regular basis? If so, is it for your health, pleasure, or both?

• Did you see your favorite chocolate brands and bars on either of the lists?

• What steps will you take to limit your exposure to heavy metals in dark chocolate?

Featured Image: iStock.com/fcafotodigital

Read Next:

• How to Reduce Your Exposure to Harmful Heavy Metals and Detoxify Your Body

The post Heavy Metals in Chocolate: The Lead and Cadmium Concern appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Even some restaurants serve bone broth now. Believe it or not, there’s a bone broth to-go chain in New York City. A quick Google search will show that bone broth products are now marketed for dogs and cats as well.

But what’s the truth about bone broth? Is it the miraculous tonic it’s touted to be? And are there any bone broth side effects or other concerns to consider?

What Is Bone Broth?

First things first. Bone broth is not the same as regular chicken broth, beef broth, or other animal broth. It’s actually closer to a stock. Bone broth is made by boiling the roasted bones, and sometimes connective tissue, of animals for a prolonged period of time. It’s often made in a slow cooker or other “set it and forget it” appliances. The long cooking time is mainly what separates it from regular types of broth.

The cooking time of bone broth — ranging from eight to over 24 hours — is intended to draw vitamins, minerals, and collagen out of the bones and into the broth. The latter is why these types of broths and stocks have a more gelatinous consistency than a typical broth.

Acids like apple cider vinegar, red wine, or tomato paste are also sometimes added to break down the beef bones (or pig, turkey, or fish bones) and extract nutrients. The liquid is then strained, the solid parts discarded, and the remaining broth seasoned. Often vegetables, such as carrots, onions, and celery, are also included.

The broth is typically sold in liquid form, but some packaged brands have also dehydrated it into a powder for “bone broth on-the-go.”

Why Is Bone Broth So Popular?

The concept of bone broth isn’t new. Many cultures, including our Stone Age ancestors, made broths from animal bones thousands of years ago. But its current popularity is linked in no small part to extensive marketing efforts as well as to promotion from health influencers.

Bone broth advocates say it can relieve joint pain and osteoarthritis, detoxify the liver, aid in wound healing, slow the aging of skin, support digestive health, balance hormones, increase energy, strengthen bones, improve quality of sleep, alleviate symptoms from certain autoimmune conditions, and even boost immune function.

As a result, bone broth is also now providing (not insignificant) profits to celebrities, food businesses, and health gurus who are cashing in on the craze. There’s even a Bone Broth Diet created by Dr. Kellyann Petrucci, a health influencer and naturopathic doctor.

Retail sales of bone broth products increased from $17.54 million in 2017 to $68.78 million in 2023. And according to a market research study, the global bone broth market is expected to continue rising for the foreseeable future.

So, What Does the Research Say About Potential Bone Broth Health Benefits?

Interest in bone broth continues to increase because of the long list of benefits it’s said to provide. But what does the science actually say? Does it measure up to the health claims?

Claim #1: Bone Broth is a Nutritional Gold Mine

Bone broth nutrition is one of its biggest selling points. Allegedly, this type of broth is a low-calorie, high-protein food that provides significant minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium.

The earliest study to mention bone broth is from 1937, which looked at the nutritional value of both animal-based and vegetable broths. The researchers concluded that while neither was a very good source of nutrition, the broths found to provide the highest mineral content were the ones that contained the most vegetables.

Far more recently, in 2021, a study in the journal Medicina analyzed bone broth and found that it was not an especially good source of essential minerals, especially in comparison to recommended daily intakes.

While marketers tout animal broths for their mineral content, it’s the vegetables generally used in the cooking process — not the bones — that may actually be providing many of these helpful nutrients.

An average cup of bone broth contains 0–19 mg of calcium and 6–9 grams of protein. That may be all well and good, but this protein content is not terribly impressive when compared to some other sources of these nutrients.

• 1 cup cooked collard greens = 268 mg calcium
• 1 cup navy beans (boiled) = 126 mg calcium
• 1 bunch cooked broccoli raab = 515 mg calcium
• 1 cup baked beans = 14 grams protein
• 1 cup cooked quinoa = 8 grams protein
• 3 Tbsp of hemp seeds = 10 grams protein

Bone broth also doesn’t include the fiber that comes along with whole, plant-based sources of protein.

So yes, bone broth does provide some calcium, protein, and other nutrients. But so do many, many other whole foods.

A cup of cooked collards contains at least ten times as much calcium as a cup of bone broth. And a cup of baked beans contains nearly twice as much protein. But in fact, most Americans may be getting too much protein (at least from animal sources), anyway.

Claim #2: Bone Broth Will Strengthen Bones, Relieve Achy Joints, and Keep Skin Youthful

Collagen is the main protein in your body. It protects your organs, joints, and tendons; holds together bones and muscles; and maintains the lining of your gut. Your body makes its own collagen, but as you age, you won’t make quite as much of it.

Bone broth is high in collagen, and many people believe this is one of its major selling points.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence that eating collagen, whether in broth or otherwise, is directly helpful to your body. Many experts agree that because your body doesn’t absorb collagen in its whole form, the idea that eating collagen helps your body increase collagen levels just isn’t true. Your body breaks collagen down into amino acids. So, in the end, it’s just another form of protein.

You’ve probably seen collagen supplements sold for skin, nail, and hair health. Some research suggests that collagen supplements may potentially help to reduce visible signs of aging, relieve joint pain, and prevent bone loss. But the collagen in supplements is hydrolyzed, or broken down to make it more usable for the body. The collagen in bone broth is not hydrolyzed and does not have the same effects on the body.

If you want to help your body build collagen, the best way is to eat a diet rich in leafy green vegetables because plants offer rich sources of the phytonutrients your body needs to make collagen.

These phytonutrients in plants include:

• The vitamin C found in citrus fruits, dark leafy greens, bell peppers, kiwi, berries, and broccoli. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can help protect your skin, inside and out.

• The vitamin E found in sunflower seeds, almonds, wheat germ, spinach, and broccoli. Vitamin E works with vitamin C to promote collagen synthesis.

• The vitamin A found in carrots, sweet potatoes, winter squash, dark leafy greens, cantaloupe, and apricots. Vitamin A helps regulate antioxidant responses that can affect your skin’s ability to fight free radicals.

• The amino acids glycine, proline, and lysine — found, among other places, in dark leafy green vegetables, soy, nuts, seeds, and legumes. These amino acids play an important role in collagen formation.

• The sulfur-containing foods, such as garlic, onion, and members of the cabbage family, may also promote collagen production.

The bottom line is bone broth does contain collagen, but it doesn’t necessarily support collagen formation. But vegetables and other plant foods can be powerful allies in keeping your skin young, your bones strong, and your joints healthy.

For more on collagen and how to increase your body’s production of it, see our article here.

Claim #3: Bone Broth Is Good for Your Immune System

At some point in your life, you might have eaten a bowl of chicken soup when you were sick — and it might have even helped you feel better.

And in fact, a 2000 study in the journal Chest found that chicken soup could prevent white blood cells from migrating — thus preventing the worsening of upper respiratory infection symptoms.

But the researchers conjectured that the vegetables in chicken soup — not the chicken alone — might offer helpful effects when it comes to battling infections.

Would vegetable soup have been just as effective? Or more effective? We don’t know. But it seems clear that the vegetables, at a minimum, played an important part.

Warm beverages, in general, may be helpful when battling a cold because they provide hydration and help regulate body temperature. But there’s no evidence that bone broth has unique immunity superpowers. And to date, I’m not aware of any published studies about bone broth and viral illness in peer-reviewed medical journals.

Claim #4: Bone Broth Is Good for Gut Health

Bone broth is said to be good for digestion and potentially therapeutic for leaky gut syndrome — a condition in which substances can leak from your intestines into other tissue, causing inflammation.

There is a lot of gelatin in bone broth. And some research done on rats (our view on the use of animals in medical research is here) indicates that gelatin could bind water in the digestive tract and protect the lining of the intestines. There’s also some rodent research that found that the amino acids in bone broth could have anti-inflammatory effects, which might help with gut conditions like ulcerative colitis. But while both of these studies show potential in rats, it doesn’t mean bone broth can do the same for humans.

We have a very different intestinal lining than rats. It’s possible that it could help. But at this point, all we have is a theory.

What’s not a theory, because it’s been well documented, is that you can support your gut health with a variety of fiber-rich plant foods. Plant-based foods, including fermented foods, help to maintain a healthy gut microbiome by providing prebiotics, probiotics, and the lesser-known postbiotics.

For more ways to support digestive health with food, see this article.

Claim #5: Bone Broth Can Help You Lose Weight

Mark Wahlberg and other celebrities have touted bone broth as a means to lose weight. When getting in shape for the movie Spenser Confidential, Wahlberg told Entertainment Tonight he ate “just bone broth and then steamed vegetables after the first three days and then a little bit of protein at night, and that was it.”

While he did end up losing weight, it’s likely because he was engaging in intermittent fasting and a reduction in calories rather than anything in the bone broth directly contributing to his weight loss. Intermittent fasting may help fat-burning hormones in the body work more efficiently. But bone broth is not a magical weight loss pill.

Sure, you may also lose weight if you’re replacing your daily drink of soda with bone broth. Soda averages 150 calories per can, while one eight-ounce cup of bone broth averages 29 calories. But then again, you could also just drink tea or water, which deliver essentially zero calories.

And if you’re looking for a low-calorie way to get some protein, you could also just opt to add protein powder to water or vegetable broth.

But if you want to lose weight long-term, a fiber-rich and nutrient-dense plant-based diet is probably the healthiest and most sustainable way to go.

For more on what works best for weight loss, see our article here.

Claim #6: Bone Broth Can Detoxify Your Liver

Proponents of bone broth like to assert that it contains the amino acid glycine, which aids in detoxification processes in your body. There are a few studies that suggest glycine treatments can benefit nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in either humans or rats, but none look at the impact of bone broth specifically on human livers.

Since glycine is a conditionally essential amino acid that can be synthesized from other amino acids like choline and hydroxyproline, and your liver detoxifies itself, it seems unlikely that bone broth would have much effect on liver detoxification processes. The best way to protect your liver is to avoid weight gain, steer clear of excessive alcohol consumption, and eat a diet that’s high in the wide array of phytonutrients found in whole plant foods.

It’s also helpful to steer clear of toxic heavy metals in the first place. And that brings us to the potential downsides and side effects of bone broth.

Problems with Bone Broth

Aside from the questionable health benefits of bone breath, there are also some specific downsides to consider.

Lead in Bone Broth

One of the most widely discussed downsides to consuming bone broth is the potential for lead exposure.

Lead can have adverse effects on nearly every organ system in the body. Symptoms of chronic lead exposure range from memory loss and constipation to impotence and depression. And the data suggests that there is no such thing as a “safe” level of exposure to lead.

Lead can build up in body fat and attach itself irreversibly to neurons. It’s especially dangerous for children, increasing the risk of behavioral problems, hyperactivity, impaired growth and hearing, anemia, and lower IQ, even at low levels.

Now, here’s the thing: Lead and other heavy metals build up in the bones. And that’s not just true of human bones.

Boiling animal bones for a long period of time turns out to be a great way to leach lead out of them. And that’s true even if the animal bones come from organically fed animals.

In a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses, researchers looked at broth made from chicken bones and found that the broth had lead concentrations that were up to a tenfold increase compared to the water before the bones were added to it. The samples were made from organic, free-range chickens.

Today, many health enthusiasts are drinking bone broth by the case, hoping to detoxify their livers of heavy metals. Sadly, they could actually be doing the reverse, inadvertently exposing themselves to dangerous levels of lead and possibly other heavy metals.

Bone Broth Histamine Levels

Histamines are natural chemicals released by the immune system that play a key role in your body’s inflammatory response. While allergic reactions to food or external allergens can cause a release of histamines in the body, some foods are also naturally high in histamines.

Because bone broth cooks for a long time, it is one of those foods that contain high levels of histamine. While this may not prove to be a problem for most people, those who have histamine intolerance may react poorly to bone broth.

Symptoms of histamine intolerance include:

• Headaches
• Anxiety
• Gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, bloating, and diarrhea
• Nasal congestion and sneezing
• Asthma

Sodium in Bone Broth

While you may not encounter this as much with home-cooked bone broth, store-bought bone broth products are often very high in sodium — and can have a poor potassium-to-sodium ratio. The ideal ratio is around 2:1 in favor of potassium. But some bone broths may have a ratio of up to 10:1 in favor of sodium.

High sodium intake, especially when not balanced by even higher potassium intake, can cause or exacerbate a slew of health issues, including high blood pressure, kidney disease, and type 2 diabetes. And the sad truth is that most people eating a modern industrialized diet already get too much sodium and not enough potassium. People suffering from these health conditions or who take medications that contain high sodium levels may experience adverse health effects from commercial bone broths.

Ethical Concerns with Bone Broth

There’s also the ethical side of bone broth to consider.

Many, if not most, bone broth brands use the bones of animals raised in factory farms. These animals may have never seen the sun or a blade of grass in their lives — and were likely subject to a wholly inhumane death. They were also probably given routine doses of hormones and antibiotics — an alarming practice that is fueling the development of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

Even if the animals sourced for their bones were raised organically or free-range, the fact is, the modern animal agriculture industry is something of an environmental disaster. The cattle industry, in particular, is a major drain on resources, responsible for deforestation in some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, and emitting greenhouse gasses at rates higher than the three biggest gas companies on the planet.

Personally — those aren’t practices that I want to support. And they don’t create products that I want to take into my body, either.

What Are Some Healthy Alternatives to Bone Broth?

If you’re interested in trying the broth trend for yourself and you want some warm nourishment for your tummy but your favorite flavor isn’t “bone,” there are many other options.

Some people are creating vegetarian and vegan broths, using mixtures of seaweed, mushrooms, miso, and various vegetables instead of bones.

Plant-based broths offer a lot of flavor and nutrients. Mushrooms contain selenium, B vitamins, iron, and zinc. Seaweed contains iodine, which is an essential nutrient for healthy thyroid function. And fermented foods, like miso paste, or anti-inflammatory agents, like ginger or turmeric, are often added as well.

These three recipes for plant-based broths just might hit the spot, especially if you are looking for new and tasty ways to infuse rich flavor and nutrients into your dishes. Each of these recipes offers exciting flavor diversity by using customizable combinations of vegetables and herbs (we even have tips on how to make these recipes zero-waste!).

Plus, if you prepare these broth recipes in an InstantPot, the flavor of the broth becomes even more concentrated.

And, of course, no animals are harmed in the making of your homemade nutritious and delicious vegan broths!

1. Homemade Vegetable Bouillon

Homemade Vegetable Bouillon is where the real magic happens. Not only does it pack a punch of phytonutrients and fiber (something bone broth can only dream of), but it’s also a delightful source of calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, B6, and potassium. Seriously, this bouillon has got it all! This flavor-packed concoction takes the broth nutrition game to a whole new level.

2. Savory Mushroom Broth

Prepare to meet one of the superheroes of the vegetable world: mushrooms! These mighty powerhouses have earned their superfood title (just like the other veggies in this recipe). With their incredible antioxidant content, abundance of B vitamins (plus a dose of vitamin D if they soak up some sun while growing), and a treasure trove of minerals like selenium, potassium, and copper, mushrooms truly pack a nutritional punch.

But wait, there’s more! They even come equipped with two dietary fiber champions — beta-glucans and chitin — which work wonders for your gut health.

Now, imagine all these incredible nutrients infused into a heavenly Savory Mushroom Broth. It’s not just rich in flavor; it’s a broth that brings you a supercharged dose of health benefits. Get ready to sip on superfood goodness!

3. Umami Vegan Dashi

Traditionally, dashi is a seaweed stock bursting with savory, salty, and umami flavors. Drawing inspiration from this beloved Japanese classic, we’ve crafted an ultra-nourishing, plant-based version that’s brimming with minerals. Our secret ingredients? Green onions, shiitake mushrooms, and seaweed.

Let’s dive into the wonders of seaweed, particularly kombu. Not only is it a concentrated source of iodine, but it also delivers a healthy dose of vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and other trace minerals. We’re not done yet! Kombu also boasts an enzyme called glutamic acid, which works wonders for digestion (especially for those with sensitive tummies!). Combine all these goodness-packed elements with miso paste, mushrooms, and green onions, and you’ve got yourself a delightful dashi that not only tantalizes your taste buds but also provides soothing support to your gut health and immune system.

It’s time to savor the nourishing embrace of this flavorful stock!

Bone Broth Is No Cure-All

The next time you hear bone broth touted as a magical cure-all, remember this: The science behind most of the claims about bone broth is murky at best. But the science behind the health benefits of vegetables is massive, coherent, and compelling.

Bone broth doesn’t appear to contain anything special that you can’t find in plant-based foods. And it’s not necessarily good for you. It may even have adverse effects on your health and the environment.

You’re likely better off choosing nutrient-dense, fiber-rich plant foods — whether eaten whole or in a broth.

Tell us in the comments:

• What do you think about bone broth?

• Have you made vegetable broths — and if so, what are your favorite kinds?

• Which of these vegan broth recipes are you excited to make?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Dmytro Chernykov

Read Next:

• Arsenic In Rice: How Concerned Should You Be?
• Is Grass-Fed Beef Good for Your Health & the Planet?

The post Is Bone Broth Good for You? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

But alas, none of these is remotely real. As far as I can tell, papayas have been flying under the radar of popular culture for hundreds of years. The best I could come up with is the Nahuatl name for the fruit, chichihualtzapotl, which translates to “sweet fruit of the wet nurse.”

So in order to get you excited about papaya, I’m going to have to rely on its intrinsic value: its fabulous sweet taste, culinary versatility, and considerable nutritional benefits.

While less common in the US than its tropical cousins, mangoes, bananas, and pineapples, the papaya is nonetheless a global superstar. In fact, it’s the fourth most traded tropical fruit, after the three I just named.

The majority of the world’s papayas come from only ten countries, with India, Brazil, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Mexico leading the pack. The US produces only a tiny fraction of the world’s supply but is the largest papaya importer, getting most of them from Mexico.

In the places where they grow, papayas are both an important source of nutrition as well as a common ingredient in traditional medicine. So what are the health benefits of papayas? And are there any downsides to their consumption?

What Is Papaya?

The papaya is known botanically as Carica papaya, which is actually a mistake. It’s named after the fig tree, Ficus carica because early botanists saw enough resemblances between papaya and fig leaves to think they were closely related. You’ll have to excuse them. The papaya is a tricky plant in many ways. While it looks like a tree, it’s actually an herb. And its fruit, thought by many to be a melon, is botanically a berry.

Speaking of confusing names, papaya is called “pawpaw” in Australia but is different from the North American pawpaw (Asima triloba), which belongs to a completely different family.

The papaya is a tropical fruit whose skin ranges in color from pale green to safety yellow to sunset orange. And its flesh can be anywhere from red to orange to yellow to pink (and possibly some of the more obscure Crayola colors, including Mango Tango, Atomic Tangerine, and the decidedly un-vegan Macaroni and Cheese).

Most scholars of papayology (yes, I made that up; and no, I’m not thinking of copyrighting it) believe the plant to have originated somewhere around southern Mexico or eastern Central America. By the time Spanish conquistadors arrived, the fruit had spread throughout Central and South America. The Spanish took papaya seeds with them to other tropical regions, including the Caribbean (remember that swashbuckling blockbuster, “Papayas of the Caribbean”?) and southeast Asia, where the plants flourished and soon found their way into local cuisines.

Types of Papaya

There are two main types of papaya fruit: Mexican and Hawaiian. Mexican papaya is by far the more common one, shaped like a semi-deflated American football and reaching up to 15 inches in length. Most papayas imported into the US are this kind. And with the exception of the Big Island of Hawaii, it’s the variety grown in most US states with tropical or semitropical climates. The most common Mexican papaya cultivar is called Maradol, which originally comes from Cuba.

Hawaiian papayas are smaller and often sweeter than Mexican varieties, with thicker skin. The best-known cultivar is Solo, which actually originated in Barbados and made its way to Hawaii. One concern with Hawaiian papayas is that the majority of them — roughly 82% — are now bioengineered (aka GMO). We’ll talk more about this in a bit.

A third variety of papaya is Thai Green, which is meant to be eaten before ripening and turning yellow. While you can technically eat any unripe papaya at its green stage, this particular variety, used both raw and cooked in Thai recipes, is elongated (kind of like a hefty burpless cucumber) with a thin, smooth, firm, and slightly waxy skin.

[Find out how to choose, store, and use different types of papaya, and get some great papaya recipes.]

Papaya Nutrition

The first thing you’ll notice when you pick up a papaya at the grocery store is it’s pretty heavy for its size. That’s because, by weight, the papaya is 88% water. It’s a very hydrating food — almost up there with the watermelon’s 92% (and papaya doesn’t even advertise “water” in its name).

Papaya is also a good source of minerals like potassium and magnesium, and vitamins such as A, C, and folate (B9).

Papaya is high in antioxidants like lycopene and carotenoids. And these phytonutrients appear to be more bioavailable in papaya than in many other sources, including tomatoes and carrots.

Additionally, papaya is low in fat and protein, but it does provide a modest amount of fiber — roughly 2.5 grams per cup of fruit.

What Is Papaya Good For?

A 2022 review of papaya by an international team of scientists called the plant a “quasi-drug,” thanks to its broad range of pharmaceutical properties. The authors note that the plant’s fruit, seeds, and leaves have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Let’s survey some of papaya’s most examined and important health benefits.

Papaya and Digestion

Papaya contains a substance called papain, a protease enzyme (which doesn’t mean it’s an expert at making fun of people, but rather that it breaks down proteins).

A 2022 study explored the effect of papain on the health of intestinal tissue taken from humans and mice. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.) And the researchers found that papain changed the composition of gut bacteria for the better, growing the populations of beneficial strains and reducing the concentrations of harmful ones. It also increased the activity of a digestive enzyme produced by the pancreas and thickened the linings of intestinal walls.

A 2021 study also looked at how the fiber from unripe and ripe papayas affects the bacteria in the human gut that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are beneficial for both gut and overall health. Both types of fiber increased the growth of beneficial Clostridium and Bacteroides bacteria species and increased SCFA production.

Papaya Cancer Benefits

The chemical makeup of papaya suggests that the fruit may possess anticancer properties. A 2014 study tested this hypothesis by examining what ripe papaya extract did to two strains of human breast cancer — one hormone-dependent, and one non-hormone-dependent. Researchers found that the papaya extract was both antioxidant and antiproliferative (meaning it inhibited the growth of the cancers in vitro), and was able to induce cell death in both cancer lines.

The 2021 review article mentioned in the previous section also notes that the antioxidant activity of papaya could help fight skin cancer and other types of cancer by preventing damage to cells that might otherwise become cancerous.

Papayas and Metabolic Syndrome

A 2019 review article out of Brazil reported that the nutrients in papaya have positive effects on the cardiovascular system, protecting it from disease and damage caused by free radicals. The fruit has also shown potential for the treatment of diabetes and the reduction of cholesterol levels, which may improve metabolic syndrome.

Papaya pulp, seeds, and leaves have antioxidant, antihypertensive (blood pressure lowering), hypoglycemic (blood sugar lowering), and hypolipidemic (cholesterol-lowering) properties — all useful in preventing and treating obesity and related metabolic disorders.

A 2023 study examined the effects on human cells of beneficial polyphenols in both ripe and unripe papaya pulp and seeds. Whether ripe or unripe, the researchers found that papaya helped cells to take in glucose, and reduced triglyceride levels.

Papaya Eye Benefits

Some studies have shown that the carotenoid lycopene can protect retinal cells of the eye from oxidative stress and inflammation, reducing cataract formation and slowing the development of diabetes-induced retinopathy. And papaya turns out to be one of the top sources of lycopene.

Papaya also contains a modest amount of the phytonutrients lutein and zeaxanthin, which can protect eyes from age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

[Find out more on how to eat for healthy eyes.]

Papaya and Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is at the root of just about every disease, so eating anti-inflammatory foods is one of the keystones of a healthy lifestyle. Papayas also fit the bill here, thanks to their high levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients.

There are many antioxidants in papaya, including caffeic acid, myricetin, rutin, quercetin, alpha-tocopherol, papain, benzyl isothiocyanate (BiTC), and kaempferol. They help protect your body from the damage caused by oxidative stress.

Studies have shown that papaya extract can decrease free radicals in the body, inhibit the release of certain enzymes that accelerate inflammation, and mitigate some of the harmful effects of a high-fat diet.

A 2021 review article also suggests that extracts from papaya could be incorporated into drugs or supplements to help treat various diseases by countering the effects of harmful chemicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS). As a fan of whole food, I’m more partial to just eating papaya, so we don’t have to wait for the pharmaceutical and supplement industries to create expensive papaya pills in order to bring down oxidative stress and inflammation.

Papaya Downsides and Risks

Even with all that good news about papaya, life is not all unicorns and rainbows in papaya land. There are at least three issues to contend with when considering whether to incorporate papayas into your diet: bioengineering, allergic reactions, and food waste.

GMO Papayas

As mentioned earlier, most of the Hawaiian papayas you’ll find are genetically modified (or, put another way, bioengineered).

Hawaii produces mainly small-sized Solo-type papayas, which include Kapoho, Sunrise, SunUp, and Rainbow varieties. Kapoho and Sunrise are not bioengineered cultivars, while Rainbow and SunUp are. And unfortunately for fans of Mother Nature, more than three-quarters of all Hawaiian papayas are the bioengineered Rainbow type.

Bioengineered papayas came about because the Hawaiian papaya industry was threatened with collapse in the 1970s when the papaya ringspot virus began decimating crops. This disease nearly wiped out entire papaya farms, so growers turned, understandably, to bioengineering to create papayas resistant to the virus.

China also produces a type of GMO papaya called Huanong No. 1, which came about in 2006. But its resistance started breaking down about six years later, as researchers discovered transgenic varieties infected with the virus despite their genetic modifications.

Although there’s currently no evidence to suggest these papayas are unsafe for consumption, or that they contribute to food allergies, some people still worry that there’s just not enough research to feel confident eating them. If you want to avoid GMO papayas, go for the Kapoho or Sunrise Hawaiian papayas, or try one of the far more prevalent Mexican or Thai varieties.

Papayas grown organically are always non-GMO, with the added advantage of reducing exposure to pesticides, which is good for consumers, farmworkers, and the environment. If you can’t access organic papayas, you can still reduce your pesticide exposure by choosing Mexican varieties, which are not only non-GMO but are also on the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen list.

Papaya Allergy

Papayas are among the fruits most likely to trigger allergy symptoms in susceptible people. They may cause oral allergy syndrome due to polygalacturonase, a protein enzyme that is also a pollen allergen found in cedar and cypress trees. These proteins can confuse the immune system in people with food or outdoor allergies, the most frequent reaction involving itching or swelling of the mouth, face, lips, tongue, and throat.

Because papaya pulp and peel contain latex, they can also trigger cross-reactions in people with latex allergies, leading to a condition called latex-fruit syndrome. People with this condition must avoid contact with both rubber latex and latex-containing foods of fruit or vegetable origin, or they may suffer hives, gastrointestinal symptoms, and in severe cases, anaphylaxis.

While these problems are rare, they are serious. So if you’re allergic to papaya, then, of course, you should probably stay away from them.

Papaya Food Waste Issues

Food waste is a big issue, especially in a world that overuses natural resources like clean water and has a global hunger problem. While a lot of the food waste occurs in our grocery stores, restaurants, and home kitchens, some crops are particularly susceptible in the fields. Hawaiian papayas, in particular, are a wasteful crop; fully one-third of Hawaiian papaya crop is discarded because it’s bruised or misshapen.

But there’s some good news on the horizon: Researchers are working to turn discarded papayas into biofuel by feeding them to a type of green algae to create energy. The hope is, this fuel may help make Hawaii energy independent eventually.

[Find out more about food waste and how to prevent it.]

Papaya in Perspective

Papaya is a delicious and nutritious tropical fruit that offers a range of health benefits — from aiding digestion and improving metabolic syndrome to promoting eye health and helping to prevent cancer.

With its high levels of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidant phytonutrients, papaya is an excellent addition to a healthy and balanced diet. As with any food, however, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks, especially to those with a known latex or pollen allergy.

For most people, though, adding papaya to meals and snacks can be a tasty way to boost health and wellness. And if you want to avoid GMO papaya varieties, stick to Mexican, Thai, or the Hawaiian Kapoho and Sunrise types.

Tell us in the comments:

• Have you eaten Mexican or Hawaiian papaya? If you’ve tried both, what’s your preference?

• Do you have any fruit, pollen, or latex allergies? What do you do to avoid triggering them?

• Do you try to avoid bioengineered crops?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Nungning20

Read Next:

• Is Pineapple Good for You — and the Planet?
• Are Bananas Good for You?

The post What Are the Benefits (and Downsides) of Eating Papaya? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

OK, let me try to be mature about this weird feature of asparagus because it’s very much related to asparagus’ health benefits. When you eat asparagus, one of the compounds that your body metabolizes is called asparagusic acid. (I give whoever named it an A for accuracy and a C for creativity.)

Inside your body, asparagusic acid turns into several different by-products, one of which is called methanethiol. This substance is what gives post-asparagus urine its distinct odor. Now, not everyone experiences aromatic pee. Some people may produce far more methanethiol than others, due to genetic differences in their metabolism. And some (lucky? unlucky?) folks simply lack the olfactory ability to detect the odor, and so may wrongly believe that they don’t produce it or that it doesn’t even exist.

Although the smell is not everyone’s cup of tea (if it is your cup of tea, I may decline an invitation to your tea party), the compounds responsible for it are part of what makes asparagus so healthy.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the ways asparagus can support your health. We’ll explore its nutritional profile, check out the research on asparagus health benefits, and share how to choose and store asparagus to maintain its health benefits. Plus, if you stay all the way to the end, you’ll find a link to our companion article with seven delicious asparagus recipes.

Asparagus Nutrition

On paper, asparagus is a nutritional powerhouse. Calorically speaking, it’s mostly carbohydrates with a small but not insignificant amount of protein: 2.4 grams of protein per 100-gram serving of asparagus. That same serving also delivers two grams of fiber, which sounds a bit low since asparagus is sometimes extremely chewy (especially if you don’t cook it or neglect to cut off the tough, fibrous stems).

Asparagus is also an excellent source of both fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, especially vitamins A, C, E, K, and most of the B vitamins. Plus, it’s no slouch when it comes to minerals, including copper, manganese, selenium, and potassium. Most of the nutrients in asparagus increase slightly in concentration when it’s cooked rather than eaten raw, although you can get a heap of benefits either way.

Asparagus also delivers “specialty nutrients” that pack huge nutritional punches, including potent antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, which are important to eye health; glutathione, which is a multi-disease-fighting powerhouse; and quercetin, which has anti-inflammatory properties.

And, as we’ve seen (or smelled), asparagus also contains the sulfur-containing compound asparagusic acid that makes your pee smell weird. While the smell of sulfur may conjure mental images of fire and brimstone, its presence in vegetables generally signals nutritional superpowers. Other veggies high in sulfur include allium (such as onions and garlic) and cruciferous (such as cabbage, broccoli, and kale) vegetables, two of the top superfood categories.

These sulfur-rich foods play a significant role in preventing various diseases, including chronic inflammation, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and neural dysfunction. They’re also being studied for their ability to enhance the effects of chemotherapy and support neurological function.

And we’re just scratching the surface in understanding asparagus’ rich cocktail of phytonutrients and their ability to promote health and fight disease across a wide spectrum of organs, systems, and conditions. Purple asparagus, in particular, deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award for its high concentrations of anthocyanins.

Top 6 Health Benefits of Asparagus

While there’s much yet to discover about how asparagus can help us thrive, there are six areas, in particular, where research is beginning to make serious inroads: gut health, cancer treatment, cardiac health, liver and kidney function, eye health, and skin health (aka antiaging).

You’ll notice that much of this research is in its early stages, which unfortunately means researchers are often testing extracted compounds on rodents rather than simply feeding asparagus to humans and seeing what happens. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)

That said, there’s good reason to expect that at least some of the health benefits transfer across species — especially since whole foods typically deliver more nutritional benefits than individual nutrients extracted from those foods.

Asparagus and Gut Health

In 2020, researchers from China fed asparagus extracts to mice who had been on a high-fat diet and discovered that the compounds found in asparagus increased the diversity of the rodents’ gut bacteria in ways that could theoretically treat the elevated cholesterol caused by their diet. A comparison group received cholesterol-lowering medication instead of asparagus and didn’t show the same increase in gut biodiversity.

The following year, another Chinese research lab showed that the fiber from asparagus not only altered the ratios of gut bacteria in mice who had been on a high-fat diet but also lowered total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides in the serum of mice who had been on a high-fat diet.

Expanding on those previous studies, researchers from Spain also looked for the specific compounds in asparagus that enable it to so significantly improve microbial diversity. And they flagged several, including xylose, inulin, flavonoids, and saponins, for future study.

Asparagus and Cancer

One promising avenue for the treatment of cancer is the search for metabolic interventions that starve cancer cells but leave healthy cells unharmed. A compound in asparagus, asparagine, appears to do just that to leukemia cells. And scientists are looking for ways to harness this power in the fight against other cancers.

A 2021 study by an international group of researchers showed that asparagus slowed ovarian cancer progression in mice, both fighting the growth of tumors and preventing their metastasis into other organs and parts of their bodies.

And in the same year, a team of Italian scientists also found that asparagus compounds given in conjunction with chemotherapy for breast cancer improved the specificity of the treatment. That is, asparagus appears to allow the chemotherapeutic agents to target cancer cells more specifically and effectively, and leave healthy cells alone.

Asparagus and Heart Health

The gut bacteria changes that asparagus can bring about appear to favor heart health by lowering levels of circulating fats in the blood, at least in test-tube studies.

Food scientists in Japan discovered in 2013 that asparagus extract lowered blood pressure in hypertensive mice. In a randomized controlled trial, the extract dropped the average mouse’s systolic blood pressure significantly (to 160, a full 30 points lower than the control group), and appeared to do so via the same mechanism as a major class of hypertensive drugs, the ACE inhibitors.

As a result, there’s hope that asparagus compounds (or even raw or cooked asparagus!) could help people reduce their hypertension without the side effects of these drugs.

Asparagus and Liver and Kidney Disease

Asparagus is also a possible friend to your liver and kidneys. A 2015 study out of China identified a bunch of compounds in asparagus that appear to be protective against chemical changes associated with liver scarring (the process that leads to cirrhosis) in test-tube samples.

In 2018, an Iranian team extended this line of inquiry, this time with a controlled study of live mice. They found that asparagus extract protected against oxidative stress as well as liver and kidney damage in mice who were exposed to the endocrine disruptor BPA.

Asparagus and Eye Health

Many of the compounds in food that can help prevent eye-related disorders, including macular degeneration, are in asparagus. Purple asparagus, in particular, appears ready to walk the eye-health red carpet, thanks to its high concentration of anthocyanins.

In a 2020 study, an Iranian research team showed that asparagus extract helped to prevent cataract formation in baby rats.

Asparagus and Skin Health

One of the chemicals in your body that protects your skin from ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage is called Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70), which sounds like an expensive shampoo that was named by a 1950s doo-wop band.

But in 2018, Japanese researchers took normal human dermal fibroblasts (the cells that repair damaged skin) and exposed them to UV-B radiation in test tubes. Researchers added asparagus stem extract to some tubes, while others served as controls. After 24 hours, the tubes with asparagus extract contained significantly more HSP70, suggesting that the vegetable was able to protect the fibroblasts from radiation damage.

And a 2021 study out of Thailand also investigated the effects of asparagus on wrinkle development. Researchers tested different parts of the asparagus and found that the spear contained the most potent anti-wrinkle compounds. They concluded that asparagus could be an effective natural ingredient in anti-wrinkle products.

How to Choose Asparagus

Now that you’re thoroughly impressed with the comprehensive medicine cabinet that is asparagus, I hope you’re thinking about ways to incorporate this wonder veggie into your diet.

The first step is knowing how to select the best-tasting and most nutritious spears.

You can buy fresh asparagus when in season (late spring through summer) at many grocery stores and farmers markets. It’s one of the first spring vegetables to appear in many parts of the world.

You can also grow it yourself, with less effort than many other garden veggies. That’s because asparagus is a perennial. Plant it once, and within 2–3 years you’ll have feathery tips popping out of the garden bed every spring. All you’ve got to do is take care of the soil, weed out anything that isn’t asparagus, water if needed, remember where you planted them so you don’t rototill that bed by accident — and of course, harvest.

Whether you purchase asparagus or grow it yourself, fresh green asparagus spears should be bright green and firm, with tightly closed tips. The purple and green varieties should have vibrantly colored tips as well.

You’ll also want to avoid slimy or wilted stems. Give a little sniff (don’t worry, no one’s looking) to check that the stalks emit a clean, slightly sweet aroma (so unlike how they leave the body!).

How to Store Asparagus

Store your asparagus in the refrigerator until you’re ready to prepare it. For maximal freshness, you’ll want to keep the bottoms of the stems moist. And there are a couple of easy ways to do this, depending on how much vertical space you have in your fridge.

If there’s room, you can stand the green, purple, or white spears upright in a container with an inch or two of water in the bottom. One trick for getting more headroom is to trim the bottom inch or so of the stems, which also makes it easier for the asparagus to absorb water and stay fresh.

Alternatively, wrap the bottom of the stems in a damp paper towel and put them in a zip-top produce bag.

Don’t wash asparagus until you’re ready to use it because moisture will cause the tips to become mushy. In any case, try to use asparagus within a few days of purchase. Like many veggies, asparagus begins to lose nutrients as soon as it’s harvested.

If you have a bumper crop that you can’t eat all at once, or you accidentally buy 20 bunches at the store, you can also freeze asparagus spears for later use. Blanch them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then plunge them into ice water, dry them, and freeze them in airtight bags or containers.

You can also pickle or can asparagus, but you will lose some nutritional value in the process.

Now — ready for that collection of amazing asparagus recipes? Here’s your link: How to Cook & Use Asparagus: 7 Simple and Tasty Recipe Ideas

Hooray for Asparagus’ Health Benefits!

Asparagus may be a weird-looking vegetable that makes your pee smell funny, but it’s so much more. In those pointy spears lies a nutritional powerhouse that provides a variety of health benefits, including supporting gut health, helping to fight cancer, protecting the heart, and promoting eye and skin health.

Asparagus is an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, making it a valuable addition to any diet. And to get the most nutritional benefit, it’s important to choose and store asparagus correctly. With its unique flavor and numerous health benefits, asparagus is a versatile vegetable that will add value and color to your spring and summer menus.

Tell us in the comments:

• What are your favorite ways to prepare and enjoy asparagus?

• If you garden, have you tried growing asparagus?

• What health benefit of asparagus is most interesting to you?

Featured Image: iStock.com/BreakingTheWalls

Read Next:

• Top 10 Healthy Veggies and Fruits to Eat in Spring

The post The Health Benefits of Asparagus: 6 Reasons It’s Good for You appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

But like iceberg lettuce, cucumbers have gotten a kind of “meh” nutritional reputation. Some folks wonder how it’s possible for such a mild-tasting food that’s mostly water to really provide health benefits.

In this article, we’ll fearlessly dive into the world of the cucumber. We’ll explore the question of whether cucumbers belong in your diet, or whether they should be relegated to stock photos of ladies getting spa treatments with hemp yogurt facials and cucumber eye masks. Are they laden with nutrients, or nothing more than nature’s bottled water?

Interesting Cucumber Facts

The cucumber — or Cucumis sativus, as Roman Emperor Tiberius would have called it (he was such a fan that his terrified gardeners basically invented the greenhouse to keep the emperor in cukes year-round) — is a member of the Cucurbitaceae or gourd family. Sharing the family tree (family vine, really) are other fruits including melons, pumpkins, squash, and true gourds. Members of the Cucurbitaceae family grow happily in climates ranging from temperate to tropical, all around the world.

Native to southern Asia, cucumbers were first cultivated over 3,000 years ago in India, where they go by the Sanskrit name trapusam. Ayurvedic practitioners often used cucumbers for their cooling effects, which include relieving fatigue, burning, and thirst.

Cucumbers are now grown in at least 117 countries. The main producers include China, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and Iran. But the US imports most of its cukes from Canada and Mexico. The Canadian ones are almost universally greenhouse grown, which allows them to be the thinner-skinned “burpless” varieties preferred by many US consumers.

Cucumber Types

Cucumbers are technically fruits, although they’re thought of as vegetables because of their more savory flavor. As such, cucumber plants grow as vines or bushes.

Vining varieties can spread along the ground for many feet, making themselves at home not just in the beds where they’re planted but in neighboring beds and paths as well. Some gardeners train them to climb trellises, which not only keeps them from extending horizontally but also raises the fruit above the soil, making them cleaner and easier to pick.

Bush cucumbers are more compact and do well in containers and gardens with limited space. They also tend to produce fewer fruits than their vining counterparts.

From a culinary perspective, we can divide the world of cucumbers into two main types: slicing and pickling.

Slicing cucumbers, such as those that end up in salads, sandwiches, and spas, are good to eat raw. They’re typically six to eight inches long, with smooth skin and white spines.

Pickling cucumbers are smaller and have more seeds and a thicker skin, which allows them to stay crispy through the pickling process. Their spines are either white or black.

If you see a cucumber labeled “burpless,” that’s not a commentary about its table manners. Rather, burpless cucumbers lack cucurbitacin, a bitter compound that’s responsible for many of the fruit’s health benefits. It can also cause indigestion in some folks, which is where the “burpless” label comes from. If you happily digest regular cucumbers, as many people do, there is no reason to choose burpless varieties, unless you’re growing them in a greenhouse. (Some burpless varieties do better in greenhouses.)

Slicing Cucumber Varieties

Some common slicing cucumber varieties include:

• Hot House cucumbers: burpless, elongated, few seeds, crisp flesh, thin skin, and typically wrapped in plastic to retain moisture.
• Armenian cucumbers: long and curling, thin skin, some seeds, mild taste with hints of cantaloupe.
• Lemon cucumbers: round or oval, tennis-ball-sized, yellow to gold skin when ripe, mild taste.
• Persian cucumbers: shorter cylindrical shape, crunchier and less watery than other varieties, full of edible seeds, mild and sweet taste with little bitterness.

Nutritional Facts about Cucumbers

Your body is about 60% water. But before you start bragging about that fact, realize that the cucumber has you beat by a large margin. Most cucumbers are about 95% water, which makes them an excellent food to eat as part of your overall hydration strategy.

However, their high water content doesn’t preclude other nutrients. Cucumbers are a good source of vitamin K1, vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, and manganese. They provide a small amount of fiber (especially if you eat the skin). And they’re rich in antioxidants, including beta-carotene, vitamin C, and flavonoids, which can help reduce inflammation and protect against chronic diseases.

The skin and seeds of many cucumber varieties also contain the bitter compound cucurbitacin, a terpene that may contribute to the fruit’s health benefits.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Cucumbers?

As we’ve seen, Ayurvedic medicine holds cucumbers in high regard — and has for many hundreds of years. But recently, modern science has begun investigating cucumbers’ health benefits as well, coming to many of the same conclusions as Ayurvedic practitioners.

Cucumbers and Digestion

Cucumber seeds have been studied in test-tube and animal experiments to determine if, and how, they can reduce digestive spasms. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.) In one 2021 study, researchers used ethanol alcohol to extract compounds from cucumber seeds and found that several of them acted to reduce digestive (and respiratory) muscle contractions by blocking certain calcium channels.

In 2022, researchers used high-performance liquid chromatography (which has nothing to do with taking color photographs of Olympic swimmers, despite what it sounds like) to identify some specific compounds in cucumber seeds responsible for their antispasmodic effects. These included kaempferol, quercetin, narcissin, and orientin — all flavonoids with antioxidant capabilities.

Are Cucumbers Good for Type 2 Diabetes?

Two of the driving forces behind the development of type 2 diabetes are oxidative and carbonyl stress. I had to look up that second one. And I learned that carbonyl stress is caused by carbonyl compounds such as oxidized fats and proteins.

A 2016 study found that liquid extracts of cucumber fruits were able to block both oxidative and carbonyl stress in the liver cells of extremely stressed rats. In doing so they exerted protective effects against complications typically seen in type 2 diabetes.

Additionally, a 2020 animal study using extracts of both cucumber and its relative Cucurbita maxima showed promising results for protection against diabetes-induced liver and pancreatic damage.

While neither of these studies proves that cucumbers can slow or reverse the progression of type 2 diabetes in humans, they’re both suggestive. As scientists everywhere like to say at the end of their articles, “Further research is needed.”

Cucumber Heart Benefits

If you’re ready for some human studies about the health benefits of cucumbers, I’m right there with you.

Fortunately, there’s an excellent Iranian study from 2016 that evaluated the effects of cucumber seed extract on cardiovascular biomarkers. Forty-seven people with high blood lipids were included in the study, all of whom had a heightened risk of atherosclerosis.

Researchers randomly assigned participants to a capsule a day containing 500mg of the extract or a placebo. After just six weeks, the group receiving cucumber seed extract had significantly lower BMI, triglycerides, and cholesterol (total, LDL, and HDL).

And another rodent study, this one from 2022, identified a mechanism by which cucumber seeds reduced blood pressure and decreased the risk of a heart attack in hypertensive rats. In particular, cucumber seeds may play a crucial role in treating myocardial and vascular disorders through dilating endothelium cells, energy generation, and antioxidant capacity.

Are Cucumbers Good for Inflammation?

The popular phrase “cool as a cucumber” may have some relevance when it comes to bringing down the heat of inflammation in the body. In fact, cucumber seeds have a long history of fighting inflammation in Ayurvedic traditions. Scientists put this ability to the test in 2018 when a Mexican team found that an aqueous cucumber solution was able to reduce inflammatory factors and oxidative stress in human endothelial cells. Additionally, the researchers discovered that the cucumber solution increased the availability of nitric oxide, a crucial compound that signals the endothelium to relax and allow greater blood flow at lower pressure.

Researchers from Italy replicated this finding the same year, showing that cucumber extract reduced the damaging effects on human endothelial cells that had been exposed to inflammatory compounds.

And a 2020 study out of the UK identified a particular compound in cucumbers that appears to play a major anti-inflammatory role. Because its chemical name doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, it’s better known as doBR1, although it’s still not going to win any nutritional name recognition competitions.

Cucumber Cancer Benefits

A cucumber extract that’s similar to the kind used in some traditional Ayurvedic formulations has been shown to exhibit anticancer activity against several human cancer cell lines due to its antioxidant content.

Additionally, the bitter compound in cucumbers, Cucurbitacin C, shows promise as a potential anticancer agent. A study using in vivo and in vitro techniques found Cucurbitacin C induced apoptosis in mice and inhibited cancer cell growth.

Cucumber Side Effects and Potential Concerns

While cucumbers are generally an awesome and healthy food, there are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about including them in your diet.

Pesticides on Cucumbers

Are cucumbers a food that you should consume only if they’re organic? Not according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which ranks them as #20 on their list of the most pesticide-contaminated foods — keeping them out of the “Dirty Dozen.”

Consumer Reports agrees. Their guide to pesticides in produce rated conventional cucumbers as “very good” and organic as “excellent.” This suggests that if your food budget is constrained, there are other foods that are a higher priority to source organically. Of course, if you have access to organic cucumbers and can afford them, choosing organic can benefit farmworkers and the environment.

And of the 75 different types of pesticides commonly used on cucumbers, many can be removed by peeling. The downside of this strategy is that it also removes much of the fiber along with a large number of vitamins and minerals that are found in the skin.

Vitamin K in Cucumbers

Cucumbers contain a moderate amount of vitamin K, an essential nutrient that helps with blood clotting and bone health. Individuals who are taking blood thinning medication should monitor their vitamin K intake to make sure they have about the same amount every day.

This is because blood thinners, also known as anticoagulants, work by interrupting the clotting pathway to prevent blood clots from forming, while vitamin K helps activate clotting factors. So too much vitamin K can counteract the effects of blood thinners and increase the risk of blood clots.

For most people, this isn’t a big issue, and consuming moderate amounts of vitamin K-rich foods like cucumber is generally safe and even beneficial.

Cucumber Indigestion

Cucumbers aren’t universally beloved, however. In some folks, the cucurbitacin in the cucumbers that aren’t “burpless” triggers indigestion, bloating, and gas. There’s even an extreme version caused by overexposure to cross-pollinated plants from the Cucurbitaceae family known as “toxic squash syndrome.” So if you ever bite into a cucumber with an extremely bitter taste, you might want to spit it out (in a classy way, of course) to avoid the possibility of, in extreme cases, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, dizziness, and even, in rare cases, hair loss.

However, commercially grown cucumbers and other members of the cucumber family almost never have high levels of cucurbitacin, because, well, there’s not much economic incentive to grow a crop that people have to spit out or risk puking and going bald (the invisible hand of the market at work).

Recipes Using Cucumber

With three bright, unexpected, and scrumptious ways to enjoy fresh and cooling cucumber, you may just find yourself dreaming of the next time you can delight in this versatile vegetable. From a creamy soup to a tangy salad to a velvety dip, these recipes are sure to become some of your plant-based favorites!

1. Chilled Cucumber Avocado Soup

Cucumbers and avocados are two seemingly simple ingredients that when put together create a velvety nourishing soup that is a delight to enjoy! A fun way to enjoy this soup is as an appetizer in shot glasses for your dinner guests. Garnish it with a little paprika and parsley to make it a fancy appetizer soup shot!

2. Sunomono (Japanese Cucumber Salad)

Are you looking to get creative with your surplus of homegrown cucumbers? Give Sunomono a try. Sunomono refers to salads with vinegar and is typically served in small bowls as a side dish or an appetizer. It’s possible to prepare Sunomono using different types of vegetables; however, Japanese cucumbers are among the most commonly used. Tangy, sweet, and slightly sour tastes pair well with the light, hydrating, and refreshing mouthfeel of cucumbers. These cucumbers transform into a delightful appetizer or side dish that is perfect for the warmer seasons!

3. Cucumber Raita

Cucumbers get a touch of razzle-dazzle as a part of this refreshing and creamy condiment. Made with luscious cashew cream, crisp and mouthwatering cucumbers, and plenty of fresh herbs and spices, this dip is a fantastic addition on top of or alongside many of your plant-based favorites!

Cucumbers Are Cool — and Good for You!

Cucumbers are a popular fruit (that we think of as a vegetable) and a good source of vitamin K1, vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, and manganese — as well as important disease-fighting antioxidants. Studies show they’re beneficial for digestion, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and inflammation; and they may have anticancer properties.

Grown conventionally, they don’t deliver significant pesticide exposure, which is good news for consumers. Their high vitamin K1 content may be an issue for people who consume lots of cucumbers and also take anticoagulant medication. And some people may experience digestive issues when consuming bitter cucumbers with a high cucurbitacin content.

Overall, however, cucumbers can be a healthy food choice, especially when eaten as part of a balanced and healthy overall dietary pattern.

Tell us in the comments:

• What are your favorite ways to eat cucumber?

• Is there a cucumber variety you particularly like?

• What’s one cucumber recipe you’d like to try next?

Featured Image: iStock.com/bhofack2

Read Next:

• The Best and Worst Summer Foods + 5 Healthy Picnic Recipes to Enjoy
• Fermented Foods: What are they and how can they boost your health?

The post Are Cucumbers Good for You? Examining Their Health Benefits & Downsides appeared first on Food Revolution Network.