Beans Fight Cancer, Garlic for Muscles, Protein Needs, Reverse Diabetes with Oatmeal

In This Issue: 

• Beans That Block Cancer Spread
• Old Garlic—Stronger Muscles
• Blueberries Protect Arteries from Fat
• Oatmeal Diabetes Relief
• How Much Protein Do You Actually Need?

Find lots of healthy recipes in my
Whole Food Plant-Based, Gluten Free Recipes Facebook Group

Message from Bernadette Wulf

Greetings!

Aside from being inundated with smoke from a local fire yesterday evening and all day today, summer has been wonderful here in Sonoma County, CA.

So far we’ve harvested lots of basil, tomatoes, and garlic from the garden for our extended-family pesto dinners—always highlights of summer around here. Carrots are just starting to get big enough to pick and lettuce is already bolting.

A quick note about climate and your diet:

Fires seem to be everywhere this year and 2026 is on track to become one of the hottest years ever recorded.

The crisis is unfolding in our oceans as well. As of mid-July 2026, 145 gray whales have died along the west coast of North America, most from starvation. Warming ocean waters and the loss of sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi Seas have disrupted the food web they depend on.

What’s on your plate is your most powerful climate vote.

Why? Because animal agriculture is one of the biggest drivers of global warming. It also gulps an estimated 30% of the planet’s freshwater—more than any other single use when you count what’s needed to grow animal feed.

If that doesn’t make you pause before dropping another package of hamburger, cheese, or pork chops into your grocery basket, this might: about 99% of all farmed animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms, under conditions that would probably turn your stomach.

Ninety-nine percent! I find that shocking.

The industry calls them CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), a clinical acronym that hides the horrors actually happening behind locked gates.

If you’ve thought about cutting back on animal products, for your health, for the planet, or for the animals, but it seems too challenging or confusing, I created a whole website to help you out: https://www.plantbasedvegancoach.com/

And if you want personal help making the switch, I also offer health coaching. Email Bernadette to get started.

This Month

I found some really interesting articles that could make a big difference in your life: How certain beans can stop cancer from spreading, and evidence that aged garlic can help strengthen aging muscles. There’s a quick calculator to help you figure out exactly how much protein you need, and information on why too much protein can undermine your health.

Then, a way to reverse Type II diabetes that’s been around since 1898, and a study showing how wild blueberries can help protect your arteries, even against excessive fat consumption (which is NOT a suggestion to load up on fat with blueberries on top).

WulfWorks News

I hope you are celebrating the harvest of your own personal gifts this Lughnasadh season. It’s a great way to review what’s really important in your life.

We won’t be having another live workshop until Autumn Equinox (some call it Mabon, for no apparent reason). Theme TBA. Let me know if there’s something related that you’d like to explore.

Most of my writing is now moving to Substack—on anything from philosophy to faery magic. Come on over and follow or subscribe.

Have questions or comments? —>>> Email Bernadette <<<— Please use this link and do not hit reply to this post or I may never get your message.

To your health and happiness!
Bernadette Wulf
WulfWorks.com — HealItAll.com — Eat Plants for Life
Visit me on Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/wulfworks

---

Beans That Block Cancer Spread

Since everyone has cancer cells in their body, it’s important to know what could keep them from spreading. Looks like certain beans work even better than the drugs designed for that purpose.

From Nutritionfacts.org

Matrix metalloproteinases are enzymes that allow the cancer to tunnel through the surrounding flesh and invade the lymph or blood vessels, and then enable it to burrow in and grow somewhere else. [ ]

Without any beans, the matrix metalloproteinase activity churned away at around 100%, and dripping on some protein from split peas didn’t seem to help much, but the black-eyed peas, lentils, common beans, and fava beans cut enzyme activity by more than 50%. Guess what slashed activity by more than 90%? Lupin beans, chickpeas, and soybeans…

Turns out hummus is more than just a tasty dip to share at pot lucks. Those chickpeas are doing double duty, and the added fresh garlic and lemon juice increase the health value.

Read more about beans that fight cancer — https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/which-beans-best-block-the-spread-of-cancer/

---

Old Garlic—Stronger Muscles

Information gleaned from Sarah Otto‘s newsletter.

Scientists in Japan have uncovered a fascinating reason to pay attention to aged garlic—and it’s all about helping your aging muscles stay stronger.

As garlic slowly ages through a special process, it forms a unique compound that switches on an anti-aging pathway in the body. That sets off an amazing chain reaction: your fat tissue sends a protective signal to your brain, and your brain responds by sending stronger signals to your skeletal muscles.

The result? In aging mice, muscle strength improved, frailty decreased, and even body temperature returned to more youthful levels. In a small human study, the same compound increased levels of eNAMPT, a molecule involved in producing NAD+, which fuels cellular energy and declines with age.

While more human research is needed, these findings suggest aged garlic extract may help support muscle strength, resilience, and healthy aging. And don’t forget fresh garlic—it offers plenty of health benefits of its own, even if it doesn’t contain this specific compound.

Scientific Reference: PubMed

“Garlic-derived metabolite activates LKB1, promotes adipose eNAMPT secretion, and improves age-related muscle function via hypothalamic signaling”—7 May 2026, Cell Metabolism. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2026.04.006

---

Blueberries Protect Arteries from Fat

This is a fascinating study—not that I’d recommend trying to counteract a diet of animal fats and white flour with blueberries, but…

From NutritionFacts.org:

A randomized, controlled crossover trial tested the effects of cooked blueberries, raw blueberries, or no blueberries at all. Researchers fed people buns made out of white flour, eggs, butter, and salt—filled with mostly sugar and eggs—and saw a gradual drop in artery function over the next six hours. But when the equivalent of a cup of wild blueberries was added to that same bun, there was a big boost in artery function, almost as if the blueberries had been just mixed with water…

One more good reason (among many) to add wild blueberries to your diet, or any blueberries, but the wild type are most beneficial.

Read more about the benefits of blueberries — https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/protect-your-arteries-from-saturated-fat-with-these-foods/

---

Oatmeal Diabetes Relief

Although conventional medicine treats type 2 diabetes as incurable, research shows it can be reversed with the right diet. Dr. Neal Barnard and Dr. Gabriel Cousens have documented this—and Elliot Joslin was demonstrating similar results as far back as 1898.

From NutritionFacts.org:

The great Elliott Joslin, founder of the oldest and largest diabetes clinic in the world, described the effects of oatmeal as “sometimes magical,” calling the oatmeal cure an unsolved mystery, referred to back then as “one of the greatest puzzles in diabetes.” They did have some clues, though. They found that animal protein had to be strictly excluded, as it annihilates the favorable action of oatmeal-type diets.

And now we know, more than a century later, that, indeed, animal protein intake intensifies insulin resistance, which is the cause of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, whereas plant-based foods enhance insulin sensitivity, which is the opposite.

As I understand it, excessive fat intake is the crucial factor in prediabetes and Type II, because fats block insulin receptors in the cells. All the effective diabetes treatments I’ve encountered focus on a low-fat diet with plenty of fiber, and zero animal products.

Read more about how oatmeal can reverse Type II diabetes — https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/the-science-behind-oatmeal-and-diabetes/

---

How Much Protein Do You Actually Need?

Finally, there’s a quick and easy calculator to pinpoint your exact protein needs. Just fill in a few details and the results pop up in seconds.

You’ve heard the media hype about protein. They make it sound like most people are on the verge of kwashiorkor (severe protein deficiency). In actual fact, protein deficiency is very rare, except in cases of starvation or serious digestive problems.

The truth is that most Americans get too much protein, particularly if they include animal products in their diet.

Exceeding about 2 g of protein per kg of body weight per day (roughly >125 g/day for a 140‑lb person) carries far more risk than benefit.

Common short-term side effects (facts from perplexity.ai):

These often show up first when protein intake is high and fiber/fluid are low:

• Dehydration and more frequent urination — your kidneys work harder to clear nitrogen waste, which increases fluid loss

• Digestive issues — constipation, nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain, and bad breath, especially on high‑animal‑protein, low‑fiber diets

• Headaches, fatigue, brain fog — frequently tied to dehydration and very low carbohydrate intake

• Unintended weight gain — excess protein adds calories; surplus amino acids can be converted to glucose and stored as fat, and many high‑protein foods are also high in saturated fat

Note: Animal products contain no fiber.

Longer-term or higher-risk concerns:

Risks rise with very high intakes, certain protein sources, and preexisting conditions:

• Kidney strain and stones — high protein increases urea and calcium excretion, raising kidney stone risk and potentially worsening function in people with kidney disease

• Cardiovascular risk — research suggests that getting more than 22% of daily calories from animal protein can activate cellular pathways that promote plaque buildup (atherosclerosis), increasing heart attack and stroke risk. Diets heavy in red/processed meats also raise LDL cholesterol and heart disease risk

• Bone and mineral balance — high protein (especially sulfur‑rich animal proteins) can increase calcium loss in urine, potentially affecting bone health if calcium and alkalizing foods (fruits/vegetables) are low

• Cancer risk (source-dependent) — high intakes of red and processed meats are linked to higher colorectal (and possibly prostate/breast) cancer risk; plant‑protein–rich patterns don’t show the same risksf

• Liver stress in susceptible people — in those with liver disease, high protein can worsen ammonia handling and other metabolic burdens

Protein Sources

Of course there’s also pervasive confusion about plant vs. animal protein. Bottom line, they are both “complete proteins” made up of the same amino acids that are used in the same way by the body. Different foods have different amino acid balances, so eating a variety of plant foods is important.

Because plant proteins have fiber and phytonutrients included, they take a little longer to digest, are generally lower in fat, and they also feed your important healthy gut microbes, while animal proteins do not.

That being said, your protein needs appear to change with age and activity levels, which this quick calculator takes into account.

It also gives you an ideal weight target and targets for calories, good fats, and whole food carbohydrates, based on your age, gender, and activity level. Pretty handy.

If you don’t want to spend all day reading labels and adding up nutrients, just plug everything you eat into https://cronometer.com/

Recommended: You can set your macro levels in cronometer.com to those recommended by your calculator results.

Find out your protein (and other) requirements in this handy calculator — https://macros.evolution-health.co/