Plants vs. Pants
Here are 5 reasons that I vote for plants over pants
Plants give you nutrients
Pants (could) give you a rash (if you wash them in the wrong detergent)
Seriously though: Consuming more vegetables will increase your nutrient intake. Vitamins are found in vegetables in abundance, particularly Vitamin C and A which are heavily involved in immune function. Vegetables also contain minerals like Magnesium, Calcium and Potassium.
Plants support the body to detoxify.
Pants, based on their location on the body actually hold toxins in.
Seriously though: Detoxification is a trendy word now, and has been somewhat over simplified in the wellness blogosphere. I’m going to be the bearer of bad news and say that you can’t ‘detoxify’ one night out by having a green juice the next morning. That’s not how it works. You’re body, especially your liver, is in a constant state of detoxification - there are two phases of detoxification P1 and P2. Nutrient availability (coming from dietary sources) play a huge part in the success of these detox phases. If you’re low in specific nutrients, you’re ability to detoxify is inhibited. A diet rich in various plants, particularly cruciferous veggies, will ensure that your liver (and body) detoxifies efficiently.**
Plants are high in fibre.
Pants are probably high in fibre, but it’s not possible to eat them.
Seriously though: Probably the most common benefit that comes to mind when you think of fibre is staying ‘regular’. This is definitely true and important as waste elimination is imperative. However fibre also helps to control blood sugar, can lower your risk of a stroke***, can help your skin through removal of yeast and fungus helping to prevent and reduce acne and rashes.
Plants are full of anti-oxidants.
Pants are not.
Seriously though: I recently wrote a blog about the benefits of anti-oxidants. Essentially they are nutrients that prevent oxidisation. Oxidisation occurs through free-radicals. Free-radicals are unstable molecules that are very reactive (as they are seeking electron balance). Without getting into a chemistry lesson here the main thing to understand is that if you don’t have enough anti-oxidants within the system, free radicals (both from external sources and internal production) can wreak havoc on your cells and cause damage. A lot of research is now suggesting that excessive free radicals are to blame for many degenerative diseases.****
70,000 Plant species are actually used for medicine.
Pants are so restrictive that they cause us to feel sick and eventually need medicine.
Seriously though: Before the era of pharmaceuticals and lab made drugs we used plants to heal from various ailments. Still to this day many herbalists, chinese doctors, ayruvedic doctors, shamans and many more alternative doctors use plants to heal the body. We tend to use synthetic medicines in the West because they are fast acting and efficient and I would by no suggest avoiding or ignoring the benefits that have come from technological advances made in the way of medicine, however science is well researched on the various benefits of plants for medical purposes. A study on ginger and sumatriptan found that it yielded comparable results in treatment of Migraines with much less side effects*****. Cool right?
*Statements about plants are backed by science, statements about pants are not. They are purely based on my own observational studies.
**http://www.acudoc.com/phytonutrients%20and%20detoxification.PDF
***http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/03/27/STROKEAHA.111.000151.abstract
****http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7619452
*****http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23657930