3 Vegetables that Fight Breast Cancer

3 Vegetables that Fight Breast Cancer

It’s breast cancer awareness month. It is so important to be aware of what we eat and how various foods can help us prevent cancer or help us heal if we have cancer. My sweet mother died of breast cancer when I was 6 years old. I want to help as many women as possible prevent breast cancer or heal completely if they have it.

Many vegetables offer phytochemicals with antioxidant, anti-estrogen and chemopreventive properties. Following are three of the superheroes that you should include. The good news is that you can juice them.

Broccoli and Broccoli Sprouts

Dr. Chibo Hong of the University of California at Berkeley and colleagues specifically studied the effects of broccoli on human breast cancer cells. According to their findings, compounds in broccoli known as indoles are digested and broken down by the stomach into a compound called diindolylmethane or DIM.

In a presentation at the recent meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco, Hong noted that DIM suppresses human breast cancer cell growth by preventing cancerous cells from dividing and multiplying. In addition, beyond preventing the actual spread of the disease, DIM also promotes the death of existing tumor cells by altering levels of certain proteins that keep tumor cells alive.

Compared with the control rats, those that ate the broccoli-sprout diet had a lower risk of developing tumors, or they developed smaller tumors that grew more slowly. Subsequent analysis showed that the broccoli sprouts contained 20 to 50 times the amount of the phytochemical glucoraphanin than mature broccoli. Glucoraphanin neutralizes cancer-causing chemicals before they can damage a cell’s DNA.

Broccoli sprouts have another advantage over mature broccoli, they found. While the glucoraphanin levels of 22 varieties of fresh and frozen mature broccoli varied significantly, without an apparent link to growing conditions, the glucoraphanin levels remained consistent for all of the broccoli sprouts sampled.

http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/artemis/200102/feature10.html

Carrots and Carrot Juice

In the Journal of Epidemiology, they noted that “those who consumed the highest amount of raw vegetables—about 12 servings per week—had a 15 percent reduction in breast cancer risk, a 26 percent risk reduction for colon cancer, and a 16 percent risk reduction for rectal cancer when compared with those who consumed only 4 servings of raw vegetables per week.

(The researchers acknowledged that many Italians consume their raw vegetables with vegetable oil, which may be responsible for some of the protective benefits that they found.)

Raw carrots seemed to offer the greatest amount of protection against all three types of cancer. When compared to participants who consumed a half serving of raw carrots each week, those who ate four servings of raw carrots a week were 20 percent less likely to develop breast cancer and 30 percent less likely to develop colon or rectal cancer.

http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/artemis/200102/feature10.html

Garlic

Garlic contains a phytochemical called allicin, that once chopped or crushed releases it’s cancer-fighting properties. It’s considered to be an anti-fungal and antibacterial defense as well. To get the benefits, it needs to be consumed raw.  You can juice it.

If you have cancer, I recommend you contact Healing Strong to find a support group in your area.

https://healingstrong.org

Do you need financial help to pay for health care costs in your cancer battle?

Call Life Insurance Buyers. 800-936-5508

Juice Recipe

Cancer Fighting Cocktail

• 1 cucumber
• 1 broccoli stem
• 2 ribs celery
• 1 carrot, green tops removed
• 1-inch chunk ginger root
• 1/2 lemon, peeled

Juice all ingredients, stir and enjoy.