Raw cruciferous vegetables prevent cancer best....

Today's post: Monday, 11-10-2008

I’ve posted before that I’d read research that found significant cancer protection for eating raw cruciferous vegetables and broccoli & cauliflower in particular.

But, although I had seen separate reports that eating raw cruciferous vegetables proved to prevent cancer or the most dangerous kind of cancer while cooked cruciferous vegetables did not seem to provide much protection, I did not see or missed seeing WHY it was thought that eating RAW cruciferous vegetables WAS protective against cancer.

So, when last Saturday’s short health article in Early to Rise had what very probably is the reason, I decided to include it in today’s post.

That way any of our readers who missed that eating raw cruciferous vegetable works far better to prevent cancer and any readers who may have remained unpersuaded to include eating their cruciferous vegetables raw at least a few times a week would see the info.

Here’s the article from Early to Rise.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”

“For Cancer Protection - Fresh Is Best

By Kelley Herring

While some of us love the taste of broccoli, most of the time it's eaten for its health benefits. But new research suggests that if you cook it, almost all of the cancer-fighting nutrients are lost.

A recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that sulphoraphane - the primary cancer-fighting nutrient in broccoli - is significantly reduced during cooking. In fact, the bioavailability of sulforaphane was calculated to be 37 percent from the raw vegetable and only 3.4 percent from cooked broccoli.

So what option does that leave you with... raw broccoli crudités? On the contrary! There are plenty of delicious ways to enjoy raw broccoli. Make chopped salads with broccoli, buy broccosprouts and add them to your sandwiches, and fold tiny fresh florets into omelets to add delicious crunch and powerful protection.

[Ed. Note: For more advice on the best foods to eat - and those you should avoid - as well as how you can apply the latest health breakthroughs to your own life, sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter…..] You can sign up for ETR's natural health newsletter at its website, http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com . (It also has good health articles every week.)

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Conversely, cooked broccoli may give you better bioavailability for the carotenoids in it than eating it raw. And the same is true for cooked Kale. In addition, eating such nonstarchy, vegetables either cold &/or hot helps keep you trim or to lose excess fat without getting hungry. So, if you like eating any kind of cruciferous vegetable cooked, by all means keep eating it that way.

But also eat some raw cruciferous vegetables a few times a week as well for cancer protection. You’ll get the cancer protection from the raw cruciferous vegetables AND added protection from gaining excess bodyfat by eating both kinds every week.

Also, if you eat diced broccoli florets or broccosprouts ( broccoli sprouts) in an omelet or other cooked dish, to get them raw, be sure to add them after the food is cooked and served into an unheated dish so they remain raw.

Other ways to get raw cruciferous vegetables include adding diced kale or water cress to salads, eating radishes, eating cauliflower florets, and eating coleslaw.

Broccoli and cauliflower may be most effective at preventing cancer. They do seem to be the most tested. But my guess is that the other cruciferous vegetables also work to prevent cancer when eaten raw. By eating other cruciferous vegetables in addition to broccoli or cauliflower, you get more variety, may well get more cancer protection, and definitely get more protection from gaining excess bodyfat.

More news about cancer prevention....

Today's post: Tuesday, 9-23-2008

It’s not extremely common knowledge; but in healthy people very early stage cancers occur from time to time and their immune system finds them & destroys them.

What happens in cancer as a disease is either the immune system is very weak or the early stage cancer manages to disguise itself and hide from your immune system. On KCBS radio several years ago, Charles Osgood described this problem and said that if we could find a way to prevent cancers from successfully hiding from your immune system in this way, it would be an enormously important discovery. Many people who would otherwise get cancer and all the problems it causes would never get it.

It seems one way to do this HAS been found !! That’s very good news.

Last Friday, it was in the health article in the Early to Rise email I get each day.

Here’s that article.:

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.”

4 Aggressive Approaches to Warding Off Cancer

By Shane "The People's Chemist" Ellison

Everyone has cancer. Johns Hopkins recently reminded us of this fact while studying how most of us beat cancer's deadly outcome: the immune system. When it identifies a cancerous cell, it attacks and eliminates it from the body. But every now and then, this system gets hoodwinked by rogue cancer cells.

Rogue cancer cells have the ability to become invisible and, therefore, overcome our immune-system defenses. This superpower of theirs helps them invade other regions of the body. Internally, we become a playground for cancerous infection and disease. Slow death ensues.

To beat rogue cancer cells, you need to eliminate their ability to become invisible to your immune system. What keeps cancer cells out of sight? Trophoblast cells. You can expose cancer for what it is by boosting your pancreatic enzymes. Pancreatic enzymes eliminate trophoblast cells and thus reveal to your "immunity radar" any underlying cancer cells for eventual eradication.

Several natural medicines that attack trophoblast cells have been identified. The most effective are flavonoids found in broccoli, whey isolate, B-17 from the apricot seed, and curcumin.

Considering their aggressive attack on invisible cancer cells, boosting pancreatic enzymes should be a daily habit for anyone who wants to ward off the everyday occurrence of cancer.

[Ed. Note: Cancer is a legitimate concern. But if you take a few simple measures, you can protect your health and live a longer, more satisfying life.

Most people are confused about what it means to be healthy... or whether those prescription drugs or supplements are REALLY good for their health. Author and organic chemist Shane Ellison can help you clear up the confusion with his Foundational Health Education program…..]”

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1. We’ve posted on eating broccoli, cauliflower, and other cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts, radishes, etc as being helpful in preventing cancer and that eating raw broccoli &/or cauliflower at least once a week cuts the incidence of the aggressive kind of prostate cancer in half.

This information adds yet another way that eating broccoli helps prevent cancer.

And, since broccoli is also a nonstarchy green vegetable with many other nutrients, eating it helps you to stay or get trim and is good for you in many other ways. So, we strongly recommend eating broccoli often. And, organic broccoli is more likely to be high in these nutrients than pesticide & herbicide raised, so get organic broccoli if you can.

2. We’ve also posted on taking the supplement curcumin as a possible cancer preventive. It seems that there are very few cancers in India among people who eat curry or curried foods. Curry contains turmeric which give it a yellow color. And, curcumin is the active ingredient of turmeric.

It may also help prevent heart attacks as it acts as mild “blood thinner.” But this can cause interaction problems in people who take blood thinner drugs.

In the same way, it was discovered that taking curcumin or eating curried foods helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

So, if you aren’t taking a blood thinning drug, taking the supplement curcumin daily and enjoying curried foods when you can look to be extremely protective.

3. B-17 from the apricot seed may not be legally available in the U.S. And, I have no data on it myself. But I’ve heard some stories that suggest it may help treat cancers not just prevent them. It’s nice that there are three other ways to make early stage cancer cells visible to your immune system. (That’s in addition to the several other effective ways to prevent cancer.)

4. Whey isolate. This one I know very little about other than that Jarrow makes an “unflavored” whey supplement that has NO Stevia & that whey is a very high quality, concentrated protein source. (There’s some question as to whether or not even more natural things that taste sweet but have no sugars are good for you to ingest. And. I personally think Stevia tastes dreadful.)

I’m not sure that whey does that much to prevent cancer. But it will help give you high quality protein. So if you like that part, it may also help prevent cancer if you take whey as a protein supplement.

So of these four, broccoli & curcumin look to be both likely to prevent cancers and be easily available to you.

Lastly, here’s a quick summary of other methods to help prevent cancer.

Avoid tobacco smoke; & if you smoke, quit. Do regular exercise because it has been proven to lower the incidence of cancer somewhat. (I’ve seen estimates that tobacco smoke causes between one third to one half of ALL cancers.)

To the maximum extent you can, avoid using herbicides and pesticides or chemical room fresheners & getting exposure to industrial chemicals.

Minimize x-ray and radiation exposure.

Taking at least 1,000 iu of vitamin D or up to 3,000 iu daily looks to be very protective against all cancers. So does taking 200 micrograms of selenium daily but NOT more than that. And, taking 30 mg a day of zinc and 2 or 3 mg a day of boron also look to be helpful.

Be sexier & healthier two ways....

Today's post: Tuesday, 3-4-2008

As health writer & innovator Al Sears, MD says & has found in his practice to be the case, increasing testosterone in people over 40 makes them sexier – for BOTH men & women.

He reports that in such patients, people not only report being sexier but their mood & energy levels also improve.

In fact, just today I read of a study that did show that people with low testosterone were three times more likely to be depressed.

In addition, testosterone is a growth hormone that helps keep your muscles strong & helps prevent them from shrinking. That in turn helps prevent aging & getting fat from having less muscle mass.

1. One of the best ways to boost your testosterone also releases growth hormone & directly helps keep your muscles strong & helps prevent them from shrinking. In fact if you do it right & do it regularly it makes you stronger over time.

That’s doing progressive strength training. In men, regular, progressive strength training both increases muscle weight & density; and it tends to increase the size of your muscles. In women it increases muscle weight & density but produces little visible size increase.

In fact progressive strength training is itself a triple plus for being sexier & healthier – in addition to increasing your testosterone. You age more slowly; you get the benefits of exercise; & what you eat feeds muscle instead of fat.

So by doing progressive strength training regularly, you look better; you feel better; you tend to be in better health; & you feel sexier. That can really perk up your sex life.

2. Dr Sears has found that taking the supplement Tribulus increases testosterone levels in both men & women.

So if you do both progressive strength training & take tribulus, you may well boost your testosterone enough to get noticeable effects.

Some of his women patients who had hoped to improve their sex lives were so pleased that they wrote him some very positive thank you letters after following his advice & boosted their testosterone levels.

Some other health related points.:

Dr Sears has found that you can optimize the way your body processes your so it tends to prevent your body from creating a testosterone by product that causes problems – if, you also eat abundant amounts of cruciferous vegetables. This also tends to increase your “free” or effective testosterone levels.

Eating raw, uncooked broccoli & cauliflower not only does this but tends to prevent the most dangerous kind of prostate cancer. Doing this also tends to prevent most cancers, including breast & ovarian cancer in women. This is a well known effect of eating these foods.

(But it’s much less well known that the cooked versions lose this effect. They still are great for losing fat & keeping it off if they are cooked; but most of their cancer prevention ability is lost studies show. Since they may also optimize your testosterone levels uncooked, we suggest eating them that way.)

Watercress is a cruciferous vegetable also. And, it studies show that eating it raw protects your DNA so well it not only prevents cancer, it tends to slow aging. Try it salads or on sandwiches if you eat them.

Do you like spicy foods sometimes? Horseradish is a cruciferous vegetable as well. And, it’s so concentrated that using enough to spice up a glass of tomato juice or other food is almost like eating a serving of broccoli.

In addition, another way to prevent cancer & keep your testosterone safe and effective for you is to eat foods or take supplements with lycopene.

There is some evidence this prevents cancers. It may help prevent heart disease. And, last Friday, 2-29-2008, the TotalHealthBreakthroughs.com article published research that it tends to prevent or improve BPH in men also. This strongly suggests that it helps keep your testosterone safe and effective in addition to helping prevent cancer.

(My belief is that it very likely has comparable effects for women although I know of no direct studies of this as yet.)

Fresh tomatoes are a decent source of lycopene. They have some heart protective qualities & vitamin C. And they are a nonstarchy vegetable that can help you lose fat or take it off.

But if they are made into juice or cooked or cooked into a tomato sauce & then eaten with health OK fats like extra virgin olive oil, they are a SUPERB source of lycopene. This both concentrates the lycopene & makes it more bioavailable.

You can also get lycopene as a supplement. Taking 2 or 3 of the 10 mg capsules a day is another way to get lycopene that works.

Prevent cancer with raw broccoli -- NOT cooked....

Today's post: Tuesday, 12-11-2007

Recently, I read a very important online news article that once again showed data that made it clear that eating broccoli & cauliflower and the other cruciferous vegetables DOES prevent cancer.

And, when you add to that the other information that eating broccoli or cauliflower even as little as once a week cuts the chances of developing the most dangerous form of prostate cancer about in half, you realize that these foods are unusually valuable in preventing the kinds of cancer you want very much to avoid.

(This effect is so strong, I suspect that it will be found to provide similar protection against breast, ovarian, & other forms of cancer.)

BUT, the news article went on to say that their findings of protection were ONLY true for RAW broccoli & cauliflower. The cooked versions did NOT show as preventing cancer.

So, since I’ve been eating cooked, frozen broccoli almost every day with my dinner, partly as a way to lose excess fat, WHICH IT DID DO SUCCESSFULLY, I had thought I was also getting broccoli’s famous cancer prevention.

This research suggests I have not been getting much cancer prevention, if any.

So, I have now started to add some raw broccoli & cauliflower florets to my cooked broccoli, since I very much want the cancer protection.

Since this is NOT widely known as far as I know, I thought it important to let you know about it right away.

Eating cauliflower & broccoli prevents aggressive prostate cancer….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-14-2007

I recently read this health news item:

The U.S. National Cancer Institute, apparently working with the Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto, studied the diets of 1,300 men.

The researchers found these two very positive results.:

Eating cauliflower once a week cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer by 52 %.

And, eating broccoli once a week cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer by 47 %.

This is extremely good news for two reasons.

1. With many nutrients, you have to take them daily to get much effect. So, for something you eat once a week to roughly cut your risk in half of something really painful & deadly is incredibly good news.

And, although eating cruciferous vegetables every day may well work better, even eating one of these two each week will give you outstanding protection from aggressive prostate cancer, according to this study.

2. Many people find it a LOT easier to eat cauliflower than broccoli. And, eating cauliflower works a bit better for preventing aggressive prostate cancer than eating broccoli does.

Eating broccoli is well known to make getting most cancers a lot less likely. But many people simply don’t like it or find that broccoli simply has too harsh a taste.

Cauliflower, by, contrast is very bland to almost tasteless. And, I’ve wondered if the harsh taste of broccoli was a necessary part of the cancer protection.

This study suggests that for aggressive prostate cancer at least, the reverse may be slightly true. (My guess is that cauliflower is a bit higher in some factor than broccoli.)

This protection from aggressive prostate cancer, of course, is added an added value of these two vegetables:

Eating cruciferous vegetables of all kinds tends to prevent most cancers.

And, all cruciferous vegetables are nonstarchy vegetables -- which work very well to keep you from getting fat if you eat lots of them daily.

I’d love to see the data from a study that had men eat these two foods daily to see if that gave better protection.

My guess is that it would.

It’s also worth noting that the supplement DIM, a compound in cruciferous vegetables, has been found to reduce the breakdown of testosterone to DHT which causes BPH, or noncancerous prostate enlargement.

This compound might also be one of the ones that produces this protection against aggressive prostate cancer.

But the cruciferous vegetables have so many other compounds that make cancer less likely, you clearly would be well advised to only take DIM in addition to eating these two cruciferous vegetables.