I recall making a house call to one of my favorite patients, affectionately known to her neighbors as “Big Stuff.” She was overweight and satisfied. When I visited her at home, due to her acute respiratory condition, she told me the following story.
While working as a cook in a Brooklyn bar, she was interrupted by a numbers runner who ran through her kitchen with the lawmen following right behind. Carrying a handful of money and numbers, he tossed them into her pot of cabbage! Before escaping the kitchen, the scoundrel was apprehended by the police. However, they could not press any charges, for they found nothing on him.
Big Stuff told me that she dried out the tainted money and was $100 richer. The numbers runner later asked her about the money, fearing that she would expose him.
During a house call, after I examined Big Stuff and gave her a prescription, she told me she had no money and could not pay me. In fact, she asked me if I could loan her $10 for food. After asking me for the loan, she had the nerve to add, “And don’t say you don’t have it.” I reached into my pocket and only had a $20 bill. I knew she didn’t have change, so therefore she got a $20 loan. When I returned to her house for payment, she proudly paid me my $20, with some interest, since she had used half of it to play a number. Big Stuff was something else.
Cabbage is one of the most nutritious foods you can include in your diet. The nutrient that’s found in this wonder vegetable has been shown to prevent breast, prostate and colon cancers. It has been reported to prevent cataracts and heart disease. Cabbage belongs to the cruciferous vegetables family.
Cabbage contains an anti-estrogen chemical known as indole-3-carbinol, which has been reported to decrease the risk of breast cancer. Broccoli and Chinese cabbage also have anti-cancer properties. Furthermore, cabbage contains a compound known as sulforaphane, which has been shown to prevent the growth of breast tumors and prevent colon cancer.
Bok choy and Savoy cabbage are loaded with beta-carotene and vitamin C, which are anti-cancer nutrients. Beta-carotene is also cardio-protective and has been related to preventing cataracts. Another nutrient, folic acid, is also highly concentrated in cabbage. Folic acid is needed to prevent birth defects, especially in the development of the spinal cord.
Raw cabbage contains more nutrients than cooked cabbage. Big Stuff would have been proud to know that her cabbage was keeping the folks who were drinking at the bar in good health, as well as keeping that numbers runner out of prison.