View from the North 40: Some vegetables go over the line

I just didn’t imagine myself saying this, but some lines in the sand might be worth drawing.

Mind you, I’m not talking about breaking laws, or bucking society, or compromising principles, or shirking responsibilities, or bending the rules — or even throwing myself on a sword or dyin’ on a hill.

Sure you could do those things with your little line in the sand.

The line represents a border between either and or, this and that, one or the other. Maybe the line is one you won’t cross, or maybe the line is for someone else not to cross, but either way, that metaphorical sand is a good place to get entrenched for the long, stubborn struggle.

One of most famous and recent tales about drawing a line in the sand comes from the Battle of the Alamo. Supposedly Colonel Travis used his saber to draw an actual line in the sand and everybody but one person physically stepped across the line to Travis’ side. They stayed for the fight, though they already knew they wouldn’t survive.

The Alamo, of course, is an extreme example of drawing a line in the sand with its actual line and the dire consequences, but a lot of everyday decisions, too, are lines in the sand with little repercussions: You’ll go to the party, but you’re not wearing a costume. Fair enough.

And the proverbial sand is riddled with all kinds of lines these days — political, moral, social, individual, logical, illogical — we have them all.

One of the biggest line makers in the last two years, of course, is COVID-19. Some folks have scratched their line in the sand, then really dug in the trenches, planted a few mine fields and started sounding their messages onto the world like they got a good buy on eBay for those used propaganda-blaring speakers taken out of the Korean DMZ in 2018.

Some were a no on social distancing, a loud no on masks, a no-way-no-how on vaccinations, a hard pass on Ivermectin virus treatments or a nopity-nope on the urine treatment.

We’re not here today to judge which is right or wrong.

We are here today to judge vegetables, specifically cruciferous vegetables, the overpowering, funky and bitter vegetables that might save your life — but might not be worth the torture.

I did not draw any lines in the sand on social distancing and mask-wearing. In fact in the early days of the pandemic when we didn’t know much about it, I even worked from home and did that time-consuming, exhausting grocery washing. When the vaccine became available to me, I got it and the booster.

I’ve willingly taken all these precautions to not get sick with COVID, but my resolve may have met its match with broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

A report out the end of March will likely prompt me to take stick in hand — or maybe a large kitchen knife because it would be more symbolic and Colonel Travis-like — and draw a deep, decisive, hells no to the 10th power line in the sand.

Broccoli and Brussels sprouts, researchers say, may cut your odds of getting COVID or developing a bad case by up to 50%.

An article on the website Futurity cited a study published in Communications Biology that says these vegetables, and to a lesser extent the other cruciferous vegetables like kale, collards and the dreaded cauliflower, contain a plant-derived chemical called sulforaphane. The substance “reduced the replication by 50% of six strains of SARS-CoV-2, including the Delta and Omicron variants, as well as that of the (common cold virus).”

It gets worse.

They pre-dosed mice with sulforaphane (aka essence of the gross vegetables) and then gave them COVID. The mice had decreased viral load in the lungs and respiratory tract, less injury to the lungs, decreased lung inflammation, protection in cells from hyperactive immune response and decreased weight loss.

But you have to eat broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

Cabbage is OK. They said cabbage has some sulforaphane. I could eat some cabbage, maybe a couple little tree branches of broccoli, but Brussels sprouts? The veg with all the in-your-face stink-in-the-mouth ickiness of all the cruciferous vegies packed into one bite?

Why couldn’t it be carrots? How about zucchini? They’re delicious and grow in abundance wherever they’re planted. Why can’t asparagus have sulforaphane? Or potatoes, lovely potatoes?

I’m trying not to draw a line in the sand, or to hope that researchers haven’t discovered the natural cure that I just don’t want to stomach.

But don’t think that I’m not going to ask a professional if I can just wear the Brussels sprouts and broccoli in a garland around my neck like I’m warding of a vampire with garlic.

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If it turns out I have to eat cauliflower, I’m done. That’s a line in the sand with a full stop. Just kill me now at http://www.facebook.com/viewfromthenorth40 .