A few years ago a patient came into my office complaining of migraines. He said, “Maybe you’ll think I’m crazy, doc, but I only get these headaches when I eat certain vegetables.” Which ones? He wasn’t sure. Salads gave him a headache only sometimes, and usually only in restaurants. Cole slaw gave him a headache no matter where he ate it. The list seemed completely random, though it included Brussels sprouts, watercress, broccoli, and radishes. I grinned like an amateur holding a royal flush. The patient was naming only cruciferous vegetables.

Many common vegetables belong to the cabbage family in the plant genus Brassica. Edible plants in this family are called cruciferous vegetables, or crucifers, so named because their four-petaled flowers look like a crucifer, or cross. The importance of this family of crops for food cannot be overstated. Some cruciferous veggies include arugula (or rocket), bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, collard and mustard greens, daikon radish, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, radish, rapini (broccoli rabi), rutabaga, turnip, wasabi, and watercress.

The Triangle of U theorizes that all the modern-day cruciferous vegetables evolved from three different ancestral plants that combined, in various configurations, to create many of the common vegetables known today. The wide variety of cruciferous veggies available today was also probably influenced by gardeners who, through the ages, selectively bred those plants that exhibited appealing characteristics. That is why some, like kale, are grown for their leaves, whereas others, like kohlrabi, are grown for their (swollen) stems, and others, like broccoli and cauliflower, for their buds.

Arugula’s unmistakably appealing and spicy flavor makes it a great addition to mixed salad greens in restaurants. A few years ago it seeded itself in my garden, and I loved it so much that, for a few glorious weeks, I headed straight for the garden after work every day to grab a few handfuls and stuff them into my mouth before entering the house.

Luckily, except for the patient whose unusual story I’ve shared above, most of us get to enjoy cruciferous veggies without suffering any negative consequences. Their versatility makes them a great addition to stir-fries, salads, soups and stews. Not only do they taste great alone, but their strong flavors also stand up against lots of distinctive spices, herbs, and garnishes. The sweet, spicy crunch of a pure, translucent slice of radish or kohlrabi is like nothing else.

Last year I found this fantastic sauce for chicken or salmon. First you layer the meat or fish over a thick bed of chopped, rinsed bok choy and cabbage. Then mix 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar with a tablespoon of honey; one teaspoon each of garlic and ginger chopped fine; one teaspoon of olive oil; one small tomato; and a few shakes each of salt and pepper. Spin together the ingredients in a blender, pour the sauce all over everything, and bake it at 350 until done. Cook approx. 30 min for salmon, or 1 hr for chicken, depending on the amount. Cover the pan loosely with tin foil about halfway through.

Or you could break apart a head of cauliflower and place it in a deep pan with ¼ cup water and 2 T olive oil. Add any combination of toasted sesame seed oil, lemon juice, soy sauce, cumin, coriander, anise or chili pepper, and cook on medium high heat for about 10 minutes. All of these additions have strong, distinctive flavors that taste great with cruciferous vegetables. Or you could grate some cheddar cheese over the cauliflower and cover the pot for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Or you could slice Brussels sprouts in half, spread them on a baking sheet with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, and cook on high heat at 450 until the outer leaves begin to brown and caramelize. Just a few weeks ago, a 20-year-old told me that the Brussels sprouts we served that way were one of the most delicious things he’d ever eaten. No lie.

I am not a fan of ‘nutritionism,’ the widely shared but largely unexamined assumption that it is the scientifically identified nutrients in a food that determine its value in the diet. Nevertheless, for those who are interested, cruciferous vegetables contain lots of soluble and insoluble fiber, vitamin C, vitamin B9 (folate), potassium, selenium, and numerous phytochemicals. Cruciferous vegetables are also rich sources of sulfur-containing, cancer-fighting compounds known as glucosinolates. It is purely a guess, but I am going to conjecture that those sulfur-containing compounds were responsible for my patient’s headaches.

The scientific literature provides evidence linking the eating of a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables to decreased rates of a variety of cancers, including breast, pancreatic, lung, bladder, prostate, and colon cancer. Possible mechanisms of action include the presence in crucifers of several enzymes that protect cell DNA from damage, protect against oxidation of microsomes (a cell organelle), and counteract the cancer-causing properties of products of incomplete combustion like nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Researchers at Oregon State University found that sulforaphane – a compound found in high levels in broccoli, broccoli sprouts (sold next to the alfalfa sprouts), bok choy, and brussels sprouts – may play a major role in preventing prostate and colon cancer.

So think about eating more broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables. It can’t hurt, and it might help. And they taste so good. As Michael Pollan says, “There’s something terribly wrong when it’s cheaper to buy a double cheeseburger than a head of broccoli.” Don’t let a fresh head of broccoli go to waste.

When I think about being healthy, I think about three intersecting spheres. They are 1) eating patterns (notice I did not call it a diet), 2) activity patterns (not exercise), and 3) rest and relaxation.

Not only is each of these essential on its own, but each also affects the others, such as when, to our collective benefit, we eat homegrown tomatoes in the fall after having potted a few tomato plants back in the spring, or we sleep better after having gone for a long hike.  Or when, like a pile of puppies, we all lie around on the couch after Thanksgiving dinner.

The words “diet” and “exercise” carry a lot of baggage.  Diet and exercise are things we feel we’re supposed to be doing, instead of, let’s say, things we want to be doing.

Walking instead of driving, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, brushing your teeth on one foot, stretching our your low back for a minute after your shower, standing at your desk, or walking while meeting with a co-worker — instead of sitting — are all ways to increase activity without signing up for an exercise class.  You could also wear a pedometer, which is said to increase one’s daily steps by 1,000 simply by putting it on.  Sometimes when I’m behind the wheel I feel like I’m driving around on my living room couch, and I don’t like it.  Powering my own engine by walking on my own two legs is a great feeling.  Activity can be incorporated unobtrusively into your life with a little less fanfare than exercise.  Exercise seems like it’s more of an investment.  So stick with the former if that helps.

Where do I even start with “diets”?  First, they don’t work.  Secondly, they don’t work.  What does?  Replacing stripped carbs (corn starch/syrup, white flour, white rice, sugar) with intact carbs, like vegetables, beans, fruits, and grains.  Replacing trans fats and refined oils with nutritious oils like avocados, olives, fish, nuts and nut butters.  Replacing processed foods with whole foods.  That works.

Rest and relaxation means something different to each of us.  First and foremost, it means a regular bedtime with an adequate amount of sleep.  But that’s not all.  We recharge our batteries not just while we sleep, but during our waking hours, too.  Rest and relaxation can be photography, or soccer, or cooking, or book club, or training a dog, or knitting, or painting, or hiking or backpacking, or gardening, or being with friends, or writing, or editing, or holding a kitten, or dancing, or playing piano, or meditating, or yoga, or woodworking.  It could be LEGOS, or reading, or a regular afternoon nap on the weekend, or seeing a play, or hearing a concert, or listening to wind chimes.

The last thing I want to say about these spheres is that while each of them is important in its own right, there is a special kind of synergy where they intersect.  A hike to a picnic grounds, preparing a special dish to share with friends, taking a yoga class that incorporates both movement and relaxation, scheduling your mammogram together with a friend and going out for lunch afterward, gardening with grandchildren — all of these are examples of what I mean.

Here is some of the excitement that has happened recently in and around our home:

Last weekend, we were the recipients of three “rescued” Easter chicks. The rescuers were very happy that we agreed to take them; human mothers were getting impatient and the chicks had been banished to their basements. The group consists of a golden buff, a black australorp, and a barred rock. We kept them indoors on the chilly nights this past week, but they slept outside last night when the weather report finally predicted temperatures in the low 50’s. I put them near, but not with, the big girls in a separate, empty, parallel pen with a door that opens to a common sheltered area.

Very early this morning we heard a big ruckus outside. I prayed a short prayer that none of the babies was turning into a rooster, and promptly fell back asleep. But when I woke up later and dressed, a quick inspection revealed that the inside door to the pen holding the chicks had opened, and several of the big girls were throwing their weight around and reminding the little chicks of their place in the pecking order.

We had been planning to keep them separate until the chicks were close to adult-sized, but they have been holding their own today, so I am going to ditch those plans and let the groups intermingle. I continued my morning chores. I got the wheelbarrow and brought it around to the coop for the weekly cleaning and bed changing, but when I threw open the door I actually discovered a black Wyandotte right in the middle of laying her egg. I closed things up and went back later. I always take all the old straw and dump it in a corner of the garden. Over time, it turns into nutritious mulch. What I really love most of all is how the chickens turn weeds into eggs and poop, and nature turns poop and straw into mulch, and the garden turns mulch into vegetables, and weeds, and so on.

Speaking of eggs, today I collected 2 eggs. That’s not very many. There may be more later. We got 8 eggs yesterday, but the dog stole them all when I wasn’t looking. This happens from time to time. We have a lot on our minds; she is a one-trick puppy. Even though she is 10 years old, she still has a gorgeous, shiny coat. I wonder why.

I did a lot of weeding this morning, and of course I carried the large bunches of weeds back to the chicken coop for all the girls to enjoy. And they did.

I’ve been getting some potatoes ready for planting. Last week I cut them up so each had an eye, and then I left them on the counter to “harden.” Today I filled a drainage-friendly garbage pail 1/3 full with dirt and recycled straw from the coop (last year), and then buried all the potato pieces. I also planted a couple of onion sets nearby. Next weekend I think I’ll plant some tomatoes and lettuce seeds.

Best of all, this morning I found my first asparagus spear! It was thick and white, not yet emerging from the recycled straw that I sprinkled around the asparagus bed back in the fall. In the process of weeding, I broke it off by accident. So I had to eat it.

I also made onion soup today, which I have not done for years. In the past two weeks, our CSA has delivered a couple of large bags of onions, and they need to be eaten. So I peeled and then sliced 7 large onions very thinly, tossed them into a pot with hot olive oil, and let them caramelize on low heat for about an hour. I stirred the pot every 10-15 minutes to prevent sticking. Then I added a dozen small turkey meatballs (leftovers from Friday night dinner) to enhance the flavor, but these are not necessary unless you already have some in the refrigerator. I also added a few minced garlic cloves, some white wine, 8 cups of hot water, one-quarter teaspoon dry thyme (or one-half teaspoon fresh), 10 shakes of pepper, and 3 shakes of coarse salt. Easy-peasy. I can’t think of a single reason why it took so long to get around to making a pot.