Your Vegetables Want To Kill You
Polyphenols, Oxalates, Lectins, Oh My!
To quote Dr. Paul Saladino: “I’ve got bad news for you: Kale doesn’t love you back.”
In this day and age, when veganism is (seemingly) booming, I have a somber word of warning: Vegetables want you dead. Little did you know that those green leaves in your smoothie are filled with poisons designed to make you sick.
I know, it sounds unbelievable. After all, even if you’re not a vegan, most people eat plants regularly. How could it be true that these foods are all poisonous?
Well, how else could they defend themselves? Sorry to burst your bubble, but plants do not want to be eaten. It just isn’t evolutionarily feasible. What’s to stop grazing herbivores from eating plants to extinction?
As it turns out, nearly all plants contain defense chemicals designed for just this purpose: avoiding extinction by making whatever chews on them sick.
Broccoli has sulforophane, and the high levels of oxalates in kale are plenty defense to keep would-be consumers at bay. These materials, which are often lauded as healthy for humans, are actually there to fight any would be predator.
