Saturday, July 13, 2013

Cauliflower Prevent Various Cancers: Thanks to Sulforaphane Compounds




Before It's News | Popular Health





Cauliflower Prevent Various Cancers: Thanks to Sulforaphane Compounds



Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society Cauliflower is just one of the many cruciferous vegetables that may be able to treat cancer, according to a study coming from Rutgers University.
Cauliflower contains glucosinolates and thiocyanates — both sulfur-containing phytonutrients that cleanse the body of damaging free radicals. It also contains a substance called sulforaphane (SFN), a compound known to inhibit the occurrence of some cancers in rats caused by carcinogens, primarily colon cancer.
In the Rutger’s research, it was found once again that diet does matter in cancer prevention:
“Our research has substantiated the connection between diet and cancer prevention, and it is now clear that the expression of cancer-related genes can be influenced by chemopreventive compounds in the things we eat,” said Kong, a professor of pharmaceutics in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Even the American Cancer Society admits that more than two thirds of cancers can be prevented with lifestyle modification, and this includes diet. In this particular study, mice fed a diet high in sulforaphane, the substance naturally occurring in cauliflower and broccoli, enjoyed fewer cancerous tumors, polyps, and smaller tumors in the their colons. After three weeks, the mice fed sulforaphane had a 25% decline in tumors and those given double the dose had a 47% decrease in cancerous tumors.
Related Read: 4 Cancer-Fighting Foods
The results are obvious, “Our results showed that SFN produced its cancer preventive effects in the mice by inducing apoptosis (programmed cell death) and inhibiting proliferation of the tumors; however, it was not clear what mechanism SFN employs to accomplish this,” Kong said.
Just how vegetables like cauliflower (and other cruciferous vegetables) help to kill cancer cells is still unknown, but Kong’s team found that SFN suppressed certain enzymes or kinases that are highly expressed both in the mice and in patients with colon cancer.






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