(Dubai Health & News) That salad of mixed vegetables you ate
for lunch may not look like a scientific breakthrough. But dishes that combine a
number of vegetables together may be just what the doctor ordered. Cancer
researchers are finding new evidence that the many phytochemicals in plant-based
foods seem to work best as a team to protect us from cancer.
The phytochemical lycopene is a good example of how cancer prevention research
is evolving. Research on this phytochemical, found in tomatoes and some other
vegetables and red fruits, like watermelon, shows promise as protection against
prostate cancer. Scientists also have found that lycopene from cooked tomato
products - such as tomato paste - is more easily used by the body than lycopene
from fresh tomatoes.
Now lycopene's anti-cancer effects are being researched in combination with
broccoli. John W. Erdman, Ph.D., Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition
at the University of Illinois at Urbana in the United States, decided to see if
cancer protection would increase if participants ate both foods.
Dr. Erdman's team fed one group of rats only broccoli powder and another group
only tomato powder. Each contained all of the individual plants' phytochemicals
and nutrients. Still another group received a combination of tomato powder and
broccoli powders. A final group of rats was fed a normal diet supplemented with
finasteride (a drug prescribed for an enlarged prostate, a noncancerous
condition).
The scientists found that the diet that combined tomato and broccoli powder
resulted in much less prostate tumor growth than any of the other groups,
including those receiving the drug.
More Vegetables and Fruits Offer Better Cancer Protection
Dr. Erdman is continuing to study the synergy between tomato and broccoli
powders to further confirm the results of this study. "Separately, tomatoes and
broccoli appear to have enormous cancer-fighting potential," he says. "Together,
they maximize the cancer-fighting effect."
This interactivity is likely to be taking place in any diet high in a variety of
fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans, he says.
Fruits are being studied as well for this synergistic effect. Rui Hai Liu, M.D.,
Ph.D., Associate Professor of Food Science at Cornell University in New York
City, has examined antioxidant activity in various fruits. Although Dr. Liu
found that cranberries had the strongest phytochemical activity of 11 fruits he
studied, he says, "The antioxidant activity of cranberry and apple together is
much higher than the separate measurements for these fruits," he says.
Dr. Liu estimates that there are probably more than 8,000 phytochemicals in
plant foods, and each one works with others to perform many protective
functions. These include stimulating the immune system, warding off damage from
free radicals and putting the brakes on cell growth.
So combine a wide variety of vegetables and fruits into salads or other dishes
to get the most protection from cancer.
