How eating your greens now could keep you disease-free.
It's no secret that salads made with mixed leafy greens are good for you. But preliminary research on a class of flavonoids called flavones may provide yet one more compelling reason to eat your greens (and other veggies, too). A collaborative study from Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Harvard School of Public Health, the University of Athens in Greece, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that these substances may decrease breast cancer risk.
Researchers looked at the diets of 2,000 Greek women and noted that for every .5 milligram of flavones—the amount in a cup and a half of raw spinach or about 2 cups of shredded iceberg lettuce—consumed per day, their risk of breast cancer dropped by 13 percent. You can also up your flavone intake by munching on a celery stick or sweet red or green peppers.
Further studies are being conducted to see if the results stand up. Even if they don't, you can't go wrong: Eat a bowl of leafy greens, and you'll still get a healthy dose of calcium, cancer-fighting antioxidants, and vitamin K.