Saturday, April 17, 2010

Eating Asparagus

I’ve started buying and eating more asparagus lately. One reason is because my friend has been self-prescribing asparagus to help fight her metastatic breast cancer (4 pureed tablespoons in the morning and evening).
Curious (and skeptical), I searched pubmed for some research… and found one study showing that asparanin A, extracted from asparagus, kills liver cancer cells. Another study found that asparagus root extract stimulates the immune system (upregulates T cells, increases antibody levels).

I plan to keep buying and eating asparagus… but seriously, where does that smell come from?! (I've heard that almost everyone's body makes that odor, but not everyone can smell it!)

5 comments:

  1. Christina, do you ever bake it in the oven? OMGosh...Barefoot Contessa did it on her show, and we have been baking it ever since (a little olive oil and S&P). So so good

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  2. I love Ina--that's probably the one recipe where she's not excessive.

    I am also a fan of roasting asparagus, among many other things.

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  3. I love the taste of marrowfat peas and would love someone to discover they have health benefits like asparagus!

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  4. Ooh yes Rebecca and Frank, my new favorite way is roasting them in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper... perfect!

    Marrowfat peas, yum! I did a quick search and found one article indicating that they can help lower cholesterol!

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8672408

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  5. HA! When I read this, I was thoroughly confused. I didn't know that marrowfat peas were a type of pea, and I was wondering why a vegetarian was so interested in them... :-) When I saw Chris's comment, I read it as something like "I love the taste of collard greens stewed with fatback in bacon grease and would love someone to discover it has health benefits when prepared that way..."

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