Bok choy

Eat at least 2 3/4 lbs of mixed salad and vegetables per day, consisting of "Green-Green” and “Green” foods. Of these, at least 3/4 lb should be mixed salad. Also include at least 5 cups of “Green-Green” leafy vegetables or 2 1/2 cups of other vegetables per week.

Being a World War II baby, I spent the first fifteen years of my life on food rations. It is said that we are the "lucky" generation: Many unhealthy foods like sugar, bacon, pork, beef, milk, butter, fat, cakes, and even bread were strictly rationed. Meanwhile, we could eat as much as we liked of cabbage, onions, and turnips!

With regard to plant food, it is always best to eat it as soon as possible after harvesting and to eat it raw. That is why we put the emphasis on the consumption of salads and for them to be as fresh as possible. Be imaginative—many vegetables can form part of a mixed salad, including chopped broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, zucchini, and leeks.

The vegetables from above ground cover a huge range of plant parts: stems, such as asparagus from the Mediterranean and kohlrabi from Europe; buds, such as Brussels sprouts from Belgium; leafstalks, such as celery from the Mediterranean and rhubarb from Asia; leaves, such as Europe's cabbage, lettuce, and spinach; immature flowers, such as cauliflower from Europe, broccoli from Turkey, and artichoke from the western Mediterranean; immature fruits, such as eggplant from southern Asia and cucumber from northern India; mature "vegetable-fruits," such as tomato from Peru, avocado from Central America, and bell pepper from the Andes; edible bean pods, such as runner beans from tropical America; and edible fungi (mushrooms) from just about everywhere. Of course, today, these plants are grown all over the world, wherever farmers can produce them economically.

Wild leaves typically have a high percentage of indigestible cell wall material, up to 35%. It is almost entirely the types of soluble fiber called "unlignified hemicelluloses and cellulose." Such fiber is common in dicot vegetables. The human gut is good at degrading this type of fiber, which is found in carrots and cabbage, for example. The human gut is much less efficient at degrading the fiber from monocot plants, such as wheat bran.