SALVESTROLS naturally destroy cancerous cells. Modern plants no longer contain good amounts of salvestrols, even though they should! Read on to find out why and to see which plants are still likely to have good amounts of them today.

What they do: These amazing plant compounds destroy unhealthy cells – including cancer cells. They get activated by special enzymes, that are present in diseased cells only; and as a result of this “activation” kill off the sick cells.

How come we don’t have them in our food anymore? Plants produce salvestrols to fight their own diseases – when they get attacked by pests. In ordinary non-organic agriculture, we kill off pests with chemicals, so plants don’t get a chance to produce salvestrols. Secondly, our taste in food has been changing over the last century and a half towards sweeter vegetables and fruits, and salvestrols tend to be bitter in taste. So, older varieties  (heirloom) crops would naturally contain more salvestrols also.

Who discovered them: Two UK scientists: Gerry Potter (Professor of Medicinal Chemistry) and Dan Burke (Emeritus Professor of Pharmaceutical Metabolism and former head of the School of Pharmacy) were studying synthetic compounds that would fight disease and realised that many foods contain salvestrols as well. What surprised them was that plants that should naturally contain a lot of salvestrols – had very few. Further research showed why this is so (see above).

What you can do to ensure you are getting more salvestrols?
(A) Eat more ORGANIC and PERMACULTURE vegetables, fruits and berries – non-organic vegetables have much lower levels of salvestrols, sometimes none at all! Permaculture is the closest method to the way plants grow in the wild (and, incidentally, most ecologically sound and highest in production) – hence this “wilderness emulation” allows plants to develop highest levels of salvestrols – naturally, as there is minimum interference with pests and diseases! Next best step is Organic, as there is much less (or none) chemical exposure and overstimulation of plants to grow faster (which in chemical-driven agriculture gives plants less time to build a healthier immunity with salvestrols and many other beneficial phytochemicals!).

(B) Grapes (especially red) contain resveratrols (type of salvestrols), strawberries, tangerines, cranberries – Obviously Aim for Organic for best salvestrol levels. Bitter foods and herbs contain higher levels of salvestrols: bitter lettuces, dandelion leaves, millet (grain that cooks like rice you can buy it in health stores). Also, Swedish bitters that you can buy as a supplements in health stores.

(C) Start foraging (picking wild berries, fruits and edible plants in the wild). Caution: If you are unfamiliar with wild berries, please consult somebody who knows wild plants in your area or do a foraging course before picking, as some wild plants can be toxic.

(D) Grow Permaculturally or Organically (If you are into growing your own food). Permaculture method is the closest emulation of plants growing in the wild. Hence this way plants develop much higher levels of salvestrols!

(E) Ring or Visit SEED SAVERS (in your own country) – and ask for older [HEIRLOOM] varieties – which haven’t been commercially grown for 150-200 years! These older varieties of plants (like apples, pears and vegetables) naturally produce more salvestrols as opposed to modern plants that have been bred for sweeteness, whereas salvestrols tend to be more bitter. Keep retaining  the seeds from those varieties and keep re-growing annuals from your own seeds!

(F) Learn about bitter plants and wild edible plants and grow in your garden emulating the wild way in which it grew (respectfully, i.e. do not tear out the last remaining specimen out of your local forest!!!). Collect seeds or transplant from wild. Take a runner from a strawberry, a young billberry bush in an area where there are huge numbers of these plants already. Propagate in your garden for friends and family, no need to go back up the mountains or forest every time somebody else wants the same wild plant in their garden! Grow these plants as they grow in the wild, i.e. watch wht type of soil it grows on: acid (under conifers or on bog land), alkaline, sandy, heavy clay, rich in organic matter, etc. In the full sun (on a meadow) or under trees. Emulate similar conditions in the garden. Also, research into plant guilds or “mutually-beneficial plan groups”, i.e. plants that when grown together, benefit each other in ways of exchanging beneficial chemicals underground and through changing the soil composition. You will see these plant groups happily growing together in the wild, perhaps when you dig one wild plant that you intend to eat, dig or collect seeds of the neighbour plants, if both seem very “happy together”. Simply put: learn about permaculture plant guilds! :))

(G) If you are not into growing your own stuff: buy organic, buy from local permaculture growers! Enquire about local Organic or permaculture box schemes and/or markets! Or buy organic from supermarkets!

(H) Finally, you can supplement with Salvestrols – this may be of interest to you ESPECIALLY if somebody is quite sick. http://www.naturopharma.com/salvestrols (there are many websites that sell salvestrols, go by reviews, quality assurance, anecdotal evidence to find a good reputable brand).

In Conclusion…

Remember that NATURALLY – we are meant to have salvestrols – we’ve been eating them for as long as we’ve existed in this current state of evolution (Homo Sapience), and only over the LAST 100 years we stopped eating them almost entirely! This is bound to have an effect on us – apart from overwhelming toxicity, lack of minerals in our food (As it’s no longer in t long time the soils because of the mass-chemical farming), we lack many-many phytonutrients that are crucial to our health, which we are only starting to understand. It may take a very long time to FULLY scientifically describe everything that every single plant compound does – and in many cases, researchers don’t get paid for that kind of research, so it is unlikely that we will ever scientifically find out EVERYTHING that EVERY important phytonutrient does in the plant kingdom!
So, it all has been taken care of when plants live – naturally – as close to the natural order of things as possible, it’s in their DNA to grow and produce what we are meant to eat, if only we emulated how they grow in nature, and didn’t go AGAINST nature so much, we’d get food that is TRULY good for us on many levels we haven’t come close yet to understand!