Crunch! Carrots May Cut Cancer Risk
Source >
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=97&ncid=97&e=4&u=/hsn/20050209/hl_hsn/crunchcarrotsmaycutcancerrisk
Wed Feb 9, 5:02 PM ET
Add to My Yahoo! Health - HealthDay
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDayNews) -- There's more good
news from the garden: A compound in carrots may be a
potent cancer fighter, reducing malignancies in rats
by a third, a European study claims.
Yahoo! Health
Have questions about your health?
Find answers here.
"One of the natural pesticides in carrots is
responsible for the cancer-preventing effect of
carrots," said lead researcher Kirsten Brandt, a
senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle upon
Tyne, in England. "We now have identified a compound
which seems to have an effect that can explain this
benefit."
Nutrition experts have long recommended that people
eat carrots because of their apparent ability to
prevent cancer, but, until now, the particular
compound driving this effect was not known.
Epidemiological studies have shown that individuals
with the highest carrot consumption can lower their
risk of cancer by up to 40 percent.
Now, Brandt's team says that falcarinol, a compound
that protects the vegetable from fungal diseases, may
be the prime reason carrots are so unfriendly to
cancers. One previous study had suggested that might
be the case, but results were inconclusive.
To find out if falcarinol really does prevent cancer,
Brandt's team studied 24 rats with precancerous tumors
that mimicked human colorectal cancer. The rats were
assigned to three groups, and each group was given a
different diet.
After 18 weeks, Brandt's group found that rats that
ate carrots along with their ordinary feed, as well as
a second group that had falcarinol added to their
feed, were one-third less likely to develop cancerous
tumors compared with rats that were not given either,
according to the report in the February issue of the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Brandt said the exact mechanism behind falcarinol's
anti-cancer activity remains unknown. The researchers
also don't know if the results seen in rats would be
seen in humans. "But, it is encouraging that the data
fits with what we have seen in humans," Brandt said.
These findings reinforce the message that people
should eat five servings of fruit and vegetables
everyday, she said.
"We have now tested carrots," she added. "But there
are a lot of other vegetables that we have not tested,
which might have the same properties. There are lots
of other similar compounds in other vegetables."
However, whether the beneficial effect of falcarinol
is diluted or eliminated when carrots are cooked or
juiced is unknown. That needs to be tested, Brandt
said.
The researchers were intrigued that the vegetable's
natural pesticides may be the real cancer-fighters,
not vitamins or other nutrients. According to Brandt,
the discovery may answer the longstanding question,
"Why is it that eating vegetables is so much better
for your health than just taking a vitamin pill with
the same amount of vitamins and minerals?"
In addition, the finding might be important in
developing new cancer treatments, she said. However,
Brandt believes the quickest benefit can be achieved
by simply developing carrots that have more
falcarinol. "We might be able to double the intake of
falcarinol, and that might have large benefits for
public health," she said.
Another expert, Vicky Stevens, a research scientist at
the American Cancer Society (news - web sites),
remains cautious. "It is a little difficult to know
where this is going to go in relation to humans," she
said "It is worthy of further research."
Stevens believes falcarinol might be just one weapon
in the vegetable anti-cancer armamentarium. "We don't
expect that there is going to be one single magic
bullet. It is still important to consider the rest of
the carrot, and other vegetables," she said.
"Perhaps the single most significant implication of
this study is that it reaffirms dietary common sense
in our era of dietary silliness," said Dr. David L.
Katz, an associate clinical professor of public health
and director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale
University School of Medicine.
Katz noted that some of the popular "low-carb" diets
actually banish carrots because they have a high
glycemic (sugar) index. "Brandt helps reveal the folly
of this oversimplified and rigid interpretation of
what constitutes good food," he said.
"We may have to wait to know for sure that falcarinol
can help prevent cancer in humans," Katz said. "But we
needn't wait to derive likely health benefits from
eating carrots often -- and I, for one, don't intend
to."
More information
The American Cancer Society can tell you more about
diet and cancer.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn.
Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/4F6XtA/_WnJAA/E2hLAA/08NolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
contact owner: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mail list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Delivered-To: mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List-Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
no flaming arguing or denigration of others allowed
contact owner with complaints regarding posting/list
or anything else. Thank you.
please share/comment/inform and mostly enjoy this list
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quick_vegetarian/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
