One common denominator that researchers have found in fully 95% of people with diseases is a non-nutritious diet. We’ve all heard it a million times, but just because it has become a cliché doesn’t mean it isn’t still true: in the long run, we really are what we eat. And, believe it or not, the road to disease can be altered and incubation cycles disrupted simply by consuming living foods (uncooked, non-pasteurized, minimally processed, live-enzyme containing fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds) and green foods. In fact, green foods alone have the capability of reversing the trend toward disease.

So, what are green foods? They’re that stuff we baby boomers have been hearing about since we were little kids: deep green leafy vegetables. Not vitamins or medicines, just deep green leafy vegetables. Grandma knew what she was talking about when she told us to eat our spinach so we could grow up to be strong like Popeye. The power of the nutrients in deep green leafy vegetables to heal and rejuvenate a body is unmatched by any combination of synthetic medicines or supplements.

Green foods contain chlorophyll, the same green pigment found in plants. In case you’ve forgotten your high-school biology, chlorophyll is what makes life on earth possible. The oxygen we breathe comes from the chlorophyll in plants. To bring it down to its most simple terms: no chlorophyll, no human life.

Chlorophyll is identical to human blood with one exception: the center element in chlorophyll is magnesium, whereas the center element in blood is iron. Some researchers claim that chlorophyll has the ability to release magnesium from its center and absorb iron, and thus become hemoglobin. Chlorophyll literally becomes human blood. More blood means our body has more ability to disburse oxygen!

Chlorophyll not only increases oxygen levels throughout the body, including the extremities, it also releases carbon dioxide, which helps prevent disease incubation. Green foods take carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, the toxic byproducts of our breathing in heat and pollution, and convert them into oxygen. So it’s a simple equation: green foods = oxygen = the most powerful tool we have for disease prevention and recovery.

Even the side effects are positive.

Not only do green foods have heavy concentrations of chlorophyll that oxygenate the body, they also have enzymes that rejuvenate and are responsible for virtually every chemical reaction at the cellular level.

When we increase our food’s digestibility, we increase the speed with which it is eliminated from our bodies, which, in turn, helps eliminate illness. Here’s why: as undigested food goes through the intestinal system, it turns to waste, attaches itself to the intestinal wall (sometimes hiding in little pockets) and becomes toxic. Toxic waste is essentially slow-acting poison to the human body. When we start eating green foods, with their rich digestive as well as antioxidant enzymes, those toxins that have built up over the years (or decades) begin to slough off from their hiding places and evacuate. Once they’re voided, the foods we subsequently eat will be fully digested and fully eliminated. In other words, our guts will feel better, our digestive tract will work better, and our calories will turn more to energy than fat.

Besides digestive enzymes, green foods also contain potassium and cell salts, which encourage the normal elimination process. We all know we need fiber to help avoid or correct constipation, but the recent trend of relying solely on fiber is actually counterproductive. Fiber is bulky; too much bulk can literally stretch the intestines out of shape and, thus, out of proper functioning. Potassium, on the other hand, causes the bowel to contract, while sodium causes it to expand. Aha! A pattern of logic: eating green food abundant in potassium and cell salts will cause your intestines to contract and expand, which will gently squeeze the bowel material downwards and . . . viola! Daily, easy elimination. Does it get any better than that?

Well, actually, yes, it does.

Let’s face it: over-acidity is a rampant problem in America. In fact, based on the abundance of TV commercials for antacids, it seems just about everybody in the country has acid indigestion. What you may not realize, however, is that an overly acidic body is just courting illness or disease. On the scale where human blood must have a pH of 7.4 to be considered healthy and everything above seven is alkaline while everything below is acidic, most of us gobbling Tums® and Rolaids® probably fall somewhere between five and six. Not good. The ability to alkalize our body is one of the most powerful and important ways of interrupting carcinogenic incubations.

Deep green leafy vegetables have that ability! They alkalize the body, a distinct difference from the effect of an antacid, which neutralizes digestive acids, often for hours. Consider this: you have pizza for lunch, get heartburn, pop an antacid. Later, when you eat another one of those hard-on-the-stomach combinations you enjoy so much — like a fast-food burger or even homemade meat and potatoes — those neutralized digestive acids are still unavailable to go to work. Your body hadn’t digested lunch because you neutralized your digestive acids, and now it also can’t digest dinner. The entire day’s food joins the accumulation you’ve already got sitting in your gut, and the whole mess festers. More acid indigestion, requiring more antacids, leading to more poison in your system, creating a more disease-friendly environment. Given enough time: gastroesophageal reflux, diverticulitis, cancer.

Green foods, on the other hand, are not only easily digested, they raise the level of alkalinity in the body to counteract the acidity, all the while helping to detach and flush out any built-up toxins. No surgery, no laboratory-developed drug, no chemically treated supplement can get your digestive tract back on track as easily and effectively as dark green leafy vegetables.

So, eat your spinach. Nibble on your broccoli. Chomp on your celery and enjoy your kale and lettuce and leaks and scallions. And with every bite, remember: you’re taking a step toward protecting yourself against cancer, heart disease, emphysema, diverticulitis, adult-onset diabetes, and many other health problems. In a society that is at once overweight and malnourished, green foods are the best, easiest and most natural weapon we have in the fight to prevent and reverse the trend toward disease.