HeraSphere #36: Fridge Pharmacy Stocking Tips

Hi friend’s,

Last week I launched a HeraSphere 30-plant challenge inspired by Dr. Mary Claire Haver: track how many different plant foods you ate in the past seven days - and see if you can get to 30.

I proudly got to 33. Boy was I shocked by how diverse the plant diets of my readers were! My top 3 readers came in at 70, 68 and 55 types of plants. And many were surprised how many varieties they had consumed. The most diverse eaters had depth in every single category of plants, from fruits to vegetables, legumes and pulses, herbs, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

When I tallied my own week, the gap in legumes surprised me. Lentils, chickpeas, black beans — the least glamorous, most nutritionally powerful foods on the planet — were basically absent from my diet. I thought I ate well, but my plant list told a different story.

Dr. William Li, physician-scientist and author of Eat to Beat Disease, has completely changed how I think about food. The most powerful tools we have for preventing cancer, protecting our hearts, and strengthening our immune systems are sitting in the grocery store. And many of us are walking right past them.

This issue is a bit geeky. We're getting into angiogenesis and nitric oxide, two pathways that quietly run your body's defense against cancer and heart disease. Once you see how a simple grocery list activates both, you won't be able to unsee it.

The TL;DR

• Dr. William Li's research shows that 50% of everyday foods he tested performed as well as or better than cancer drugs in the same lab systems.

• Specific foods starve cancer before it starts by cutting off the blood supply tumors need to grow — cooked tomatoes, blueberries, turmeric, and bok choy are among the most evidence-backed.

• Nitric oxide keeps your blood vessels flexible and your heart protected — and estrogen used to help you make it. After menopause, leafy greens and polyphenol-rich foods become your primary lever.

• Two gut bacteria are running critical operations inside you right now. Akkermansia predicts your response to cancer immunotherapy. L. reuteri (found in sourdough) boosts immunity and signals your brain to release oxytocin. Pomegranate and Sourdough deliver these two bacteria.

• The same foods keep showing up across every defense system. The grocery list is shorter than you'd think, and the best time to start is now.

Your Food Pharmacy: How Your Body Starves Cancer Before It Starts

• Dr. Li's research found that 50% of foods tested performed as well as or better than cancer drugs in the same lab systems. We're talking about tomatoes, berries, green tea, olive oil. Foods you can buy at any grocery store. His research shows that your body already runs five defense systems — blood vessel regulation, stem cell regeneration, gut health, DNA repair, and immunity — and specific foods activate all of them.

• The defense system at the center of his research is called angiogenesis — your body's ability to manage blood vessel growth. Your body grows new blood vessels when it needs to heal, and shuts that process down when the job is done. Cancer tumors hijack this system to build their own blood supply. Without that supply, microscopic cancers stay tiny, dormant, and harmless. We all carry microscopic cancers — they're normal. The question is whether they ever get the fuel to become a problem. Anti-angiogenic foods cut off that fuel.

• Cooked tomatoes are one of the most powerful anti-angiogenic foods Dr. Li has studied. A study found that eating two to three half-cup servings of cooked tomato sauce per week reduced prostate cancer risk by about 30%. The key compound is lycopene — the molecule that makes tomatoes red. Raw tomatoes only deliver about 20% of usable lycopene. Cooking for 30 minutes increases absorbable lycopene by 250%. Adding olive oil carries it into the bloodstream even faster. After learning this from Dr. Li, I started keeping jarred marinara on rotation at least twice a week. My husband has always been a fan of marinara — now he's extra excited to have it. Scratch sauce is the future vision, but jarred gets it done.

• The colors on your plate are signals: deep blues, purples, and reds carry potent anti-cancer compounds. Blueberries get their deep color from anthocyanins — the natural pigments that give plants their blue, purple, and red hues, and which also happen to be powerful anti-angiogenic agents that help cut off blood supply to tumors. Dr. Li's research shows one cup of blueberries per week supports breast cancer defense and immune function. Purple sweet potatoes carry the same class of compounds. Bok choy is explicitly named as anti-angiogenic. Turmeric and ginger are among the most studied anti-inflammatory compounds in food — curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) directly inhibits tumor blood vessel growth. Combinations of these spices are more potent than any single one alone, which makes a strong case for cooking with variety rather than popping a supplement.

• Takeaway: Your body already has a system for keeping cancer in check — and specific foods activate it. Cooked tomatoes with olive oil, blueberries, purple sweet potatoes, bok choy, turmeric, and ginger are among the most evidence-backed. Two servings of tomato sauce a week. A cup of blueberries a week. More color on every plate. These are small changes that can be delicious and protect your health.

Nitric Oxide: The Molecule Keeping Your Blood Vessels Young

• Every doctor and researcher I follow has been talking about nitric oxide lately, and once you understand it, the "eat your leafy greens" advice finally makes sense. Nitric oxide is a molecule your blood vessel walls produce that keeps them flexible, open, and resistant to damage. Think of your blood vessels as garden hoses — nitric oxide is what keeps them soft and pliable instead of stiff and brittle. It lowers blood pressure, prevents dangerous clotting, and protects against the plaque buildup that leads to heart attacks and strokes.

• Estrogen actively helps your body produce nitric oxide. As estrogen drops during perimenopause, nitric oxide production drops with it. Blood vessels stiffen. Cardiovascular risk climbs. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, and this mechanism is a major contributor. The good news is that specific foods can directly support nitric oxide production and help fill the gap estrogen used to cover.

• Leafy greens are the richest food source of the raw materials your body uses to make nitric oxide. Arugula, spinach, kale, and bok choy are all naturally high in dietary nitrates (completely different from the processed meat kind), which your body converts into active nitric oxide through a pathway that starts in your saliva. The Nurses' Health Study, which followed 62,000 women, found that those who ate the most green leafy vegetables had 22% lower risk of coronary heart disease.

• Polyphenols — the plant compounds found in pomegranate, dark chocolate, matcha, berries, and olive oil — play a different but equally important role. They protect nitric oxide from being broken down by oxidative stress (think of it as cellular rust). Polyphenols extend how long your nitric oxide stays active and working. Eating nitrate-rich greens together with polyphenol-rich foods amplifies the benefit of both. If you’re noticing that the same foods keep showing up across issue…that is the point! The ideal grocery list is shorter than you'd expect.

• Takeaway: Nitric oxide keeps your blood vessels flexible and your heart protected — and estrogen used to help you make it. After menopause, food becomes a primary lever. More leafy greens (arugula, spinach, kale, bok choy). More polyphenol-rich foods (pomegranate, dark chocolate, matcha, olive oil, berries) support this specific molecule your cardiovascular system depends on.

Two Gut Bacteria You Need to Know

• Your gut contains roughly 38 trillion bacteria, and they're actively running your immune defense, your inflammation levels, your hormone metabolism, and even your brain chemistry. We've talked about gut health in previous issues of HeraSphere, and the more I research it, the more I realize the gut is at the center of almost everything. Two bacteria in particular deserve your attention, because what we've learned about them in the last few years is extraordinary.

• The first is Akkermansia muciniphila — a bacterium that lives in the mucus lining of your gut and keeps that barrier thick and intact. When this barrier weakens, inflammatory compounds leak into the bloodstream and trigger the kind of chronic low-grade inflammation that drives heart disease, cancer, and metabolic dysfunction. Researchers discovered that patients who responded to cancer immunotherapy — the most promising cancer treatment available — had Akkermansia in their gut. Those who didn't respond were missing it. A single gut bacterium predicts your response to cancer treatment.

• Dr. Li adds another layer: a protein on Akkermansia's outer shell, called P9, directly signals your gut to produce GLP-1 — the same metabolic hormone that Ozempic was designed to mimic. Your gut bacteria are running their own metabolic pharmacy.

• What feeds Akkermansia? One glass of pomegranate juice daily for a month produced a significant increase in population. Cranberry, green tea, and dark berries also support it. And pomegranate independently protects nitric oxide in your blood vessels — one food, supporting two systems at once. We had a pomegranate phase in our house a few months ago. My kids were genuinely enthusiastic about excavating the arils. Then I just stopped buying them. The Akkermansia research made it permanent — they're back on the list every week.

• Lactobacillus reuteri is found in sourdough. Dr. Li eats sourdough every day because this bacterium boosts immune function, speeds wound healing, and signals the brain to release oxytocin — the bonding hormone that promotes feelings of connection and well-being. These bacteria are literally sending chemical signals upward to your brain. Shockingly, even when L. reuteri is killed during baking, the bacterial remnants retain their full immunological benefit. You also find L. reuteri in kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, aged hard cheeses like Gouda, Parmesan Reggiano, and Muenster. I'm genuinely happy to serve my kids sourdough now, since it is actively feeding their immune system and their brain chemistry.

• What destroys both of these bacteria: ultra-processed foods, dietary emulsifiers (the additives that give packaged foods their smooth texture), antibiotics, chronic stress, and low fiber intake. For women in perimenopause, gut microbiome diversity drops measurably during the hormonal transition. The bacteria we need most are the ones most vulnerable to our default diet patterns when life gets busy.

• Takeaway: Two bacteria, two very different, yet critical jobs. Feed Akkermansia with pomegranate, cranberry, green tea, and dark berries. Get L. reuteri from real sourdough and aged hard cheeses. Protect both by eating more fiber, reducing processed foods, and managing stress. These two bacteria are running key operations inside your gut, which also is your immune control center.

Dr. Li's Grand Slammers: The Foods That Hit Every Defense System at Once

• Dr. Li uses the term "Grand Slammers" for foods that activate multiple defense systems simultaneously — anti-angiogenic, immune-boosting, gut-feeding, DNA-protective, and stem cell-supporting all at once. These are the highest-value items on your grocery list. You've already met several of them in the sections above. Here's the complete picture.

• Green tea and matcha top the list. Li calls green tea one of the ultimate Grand Slammers because it activates all five defense systems. Matcha delivers an even higher dose because you consume the whole ground leaf instead of steeping and discarding it. The primary compound, EGCG, protects nitric oxide, feeds Akkermansia, and improves insulin sensitivity. A 2024 analysis of 15 clinical trials found that green tea supplementation significantly reduced LDL cholesterol in postmenopausal women. I've purchased matcha for exactly this reason and manage intake carefully given my caffeine sensitivity.

• Extra virgin olive oil is another Grand Slammer. It contains a compound called hydroxytyrosol that cuts off blood supply to tumors, reduces inflammation, and carries fat-soluble nutrients (like the lycopene in your tomato sauce) into the bloodstream. Li recommends flipping the bottle over and looking for the olive variety on the label — Koroneiki, Picual, and Moraiolo olives contain the highest levels of protective polyphenols. Dark chocolate (70%+ cacao) is also in this category — rich in flavanols that stabilize nitric oxide and support cardiovascular health. I have one square of Lindt 95% dark chocolate with an orange once a day, because vitamin C and cocoa flavanols enhance each other's absorption and together boost nitric oxide production.

• Mushrooms deserve their own spotlight, and Dr. Li has a specific protocol I've adopted. Before cooking, slice mushrooms and place them gill-side up on a sunny windowsill for 15 to 30 minutes. UV exposure triggers the mushroom to produce vitamin D in a form your body readily absorbs — most store-bought mushrooms are grown in the dark and contain almost none. Beyond vitamin D, mushrooms like shiitake and white button contain beta-glucan, an immune-activating fiber that measurably increases circulating immune cells.

• Sourdough bread and aged cheeses round out the Grand Slammer list — sourdough delivers L. reuteri (as we covered above), and hard cheeses like Gouda and Parmesan provide L. reuteri plus vitamin K2, which is both heart-protective and anti-angiogenic. Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, and yogurt with live cultures support the broader microbial ecosystem everything else depends on.

• Takeaway: Grand Slammers are the foods that work hardest for you. The short list: green tea or matcha, extra virgin olive oil, mushrooms, turmeric and ginger in your cooking, dark chocolate with orange, real sourdough, and aged cheeses. Many of these overlap with the nitric oxide and gut health recommendations above — and that overlap is the whole point. The same foods keep appearing because they work across multiple defense systems at once.

The Case for Beans: Why Legumes Deserve a Comeback

• Legumes are where this entire issue started — and where the most connections come together. Lentils, chickpeas, black beans, and white beans are quietly one of the most complete foods available. The gap my 30-plant challenge revealed turned out to be the single most consequential thing I wasn't eating.

• Legumes are fermentable fiber, which means your gut bacteria break them down and produce short-chain fatty acids — the fuel that keeps your gut lining strong, reduces inflammation, and feeds the bacterial ecosystem that Akkermansia and L. reuteri depend on. Think of them as fertilizer for the bacteria running your immune defense. Without enough fermentable fiber, those bacteria can't do their jobs. Legumes are one of the richest, most accessible sources.

• Legumes are also rich in arginine — the amino acid your body uses as raw material to manufacture nitric oxide. So they're directly supporting the molecule that keeps your blood vessels flexible and your heart protected — the same molecule estrogen used to help you produce. One food category, simultaneously supporting cardiovascular health and gut health.

• On top of all that, legumes are an exceptional source of plant protein and blood sugar stability. A cup of cooked lentils delivers roughly 18 grams of protein and 16 grams of fiber. That combination means slow, steady energy for hours instead of spikes and crashes. Most women over 40 aren't getting enough protein, and legumes fill that gap deliciously — in soups, salads, grain bowls, stews, and hummus.

• Takeaway: Legumes are the most underrated (and affordable) food for health and longevity. They feed gut bacteria, support nitric oxide production, provide plant protein, and stabilize blood sugar. Lentils, chickpeas, black beans, and white beans all count. Aim for three to four servings a week. Toss chickpeas into a salad. Make a lentil soup. Open a can, drizzle with olive oil and spices. It's the least glamorous upgrade I've made, and probably the most important.

The marinara goes on the stove twice a week. The pomegranate is back — my kids are already fighting over the arils. Sourdough is now a permanent fixture in my kitchen, and I'm happy to serve it knowing what it does for our immune systems and brains. Mushrooms sit on the windowsill before every stir-fry. Lentils, beans and chickpeas are on the weekly meal plan. And matcha is in the pantry, along with my 95% dark chocolate.

None of this requires a supplement protocol or a functional medicine appointment. It just requires knowing what to buy and why.

Try the 30-plant challenge this week. Count every distinct fruit, vegetable, herb, spice, legume, and whole grain you eat in seven days. I want to know your number — and I especially want to know what gap surprises you. Hit reply and tell me. And if this was useful, forward it to a friend who'd want to know what foods to eat. She'll thank you.

With curiosity and good olive oil,

Lilly

P.S. — If the 30-plant challenge feels like a lot, start with this: add one legume, one deeply colored fruit, and one fermented food to your grocery cart this week. Three items. That's it. Your gut bacteria will notice.

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Note: While I love diving deep into research and sharing what I've learned about women's health and wellness, I want to be crystal clear: I'm a passionate health advocate and researcher, not a medical professional. Think of me as your well-informed friend who does extensive homework – but not your doctor.

Everything I share in HeraSphere comes from careful research and personal experience, but it's meant to inform and inspire, not to diagnose or treat any medical conditions. Your body is uniquely yours, and what works for one person might not work for another. Always consult your healthcare provider before making significant changes to your diet, exercise routine, or wellness practices, especially if you have underlying health conditions or take medications.

ICYMI, here are a few past issues that you may enjoy: