Understand that this research involved just three small servings in a whole month — a ridiculously tiny amount of plant food. Yet it produced a powerful anti-cancer effect.
The anti-cancer nutrients of these vegetables only stay in the body for approximately 12 hours, meaning that participants only got 36 hours of nutrients — out of the 720 hours in a month. That amounts to a measly 5 percent of the time… and still their bladder cancer incidence dropped by 40 percent.
And it's very important to note the researchers did NOT find a protective benefit when the people in the study ate equal amounts of cooked. You need to eat the vegetables raw.
The foods that achieved these amazing results were raw cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and related plants.
Don't make this mistake with your vegetables
The study suggests that the anti-cancer properties of cruciferous vegetables are destroyed by cooking them — which lines up perfectly with what the leaders of the raw food movement have been saying for years.
Be very careful who you listen to…
Bear in mind that the flat-earthers who dominate conventional medicine have been bashing the raw food movement for years — claiming raw foods have ZERO health benefit.
Of course, this view flies in the face of research that shows raw foods are in fact one of the best medicines for almost all the degenerative diseases now afflicting people in advanced, highly developed countries. We eat too much cooked, processed food that's been robbed of important nutrients.
Raw vegetables and fruits contain hundreds of cancer-fighting plant compounds. Scientists are identifying new ones all the time.
Fifty-five key epidemiological studies have been conducted about the critical relationship between eating cruciferous vegetables and preventing cancer. And 69 percent of these studies show a positive correlation between eating these vegetables and reduced cancer risk.
Unfortunately, few of those studies considered raw versus cooked vegetables. But it's likely the 31 percent that showed no reduction of cancer risk were using cooked vegetables.1
Many complex, delicate molecules are easily destroyed by heat. So cooking these valuable foods wipes out the medicine they contain.
Microwaving broccoli destroys up to 98 percent of its phytonutrients (including its anti-cancer nutrients).
Alternative cancer doctors have known
about raw foods for a long time
Eating only cooked foods may be one of the biggest mistakes you can make with your health.
For years, the famous Gerson Institute and many others have trumpeted fresh, raw fruits and vegetables as one of the most effective routes to personal health. Yet most conventional doctors denigrate or ignore it.
Now, an August 2012 study provides even more evidence of how right they were.
A natural compound found in cruciferous vegetables now has been shown in both animal and epidemiological studies to have exceptional ability to cause cancer cell death, naturally.
Isothiocyanates restrain tumor growth by openly blocking the carcinogenic action of free radicals. Put another way, they prevent free radicals from attacking your healthy cells and making them cancerous.
One specific variety, phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC for short), has even been shown to induce cell death in certain cancers, including certain chemo-resistant cancers. Of course, broccoli, cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables are right beneath your nose every time you go to your local farmer's market or grocery store.
But don't expect to hear about PEITC from your oncologist.
Hinders breast cancer in animals
PEITC hinders breast cancer tumor cell development in animals, according to a study published August 2, 2012 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.2
To determine whether PEITC could prevent mammary tumors in mice, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute placed the mice on one of two diets — either a control diet, or a diet supplement with PEITC for 29 weeks. Then they measured the incidence and size of mammary tumors, along with cell proliferation, apoptosis (cell death), and neoangiogenesis (startup of cancer-feeding blood vessels).
They found that 29 weeks of PEITC was linked to an amazing 56.3% reduction in mammary carcinoma lesions larger than 2mm… concluding that although PEITC does not confer complete protection, those mice who received it clearly showed suppression of tumor progression compared to the mice in the control group.
What's more, the study showed that PEITC was well-tolerated.
The authors pointed out the limitations of their study, namely that human results couldpotentially differ from animal results… and that only human studies could definitively prove its effectiveness for humans.
Where can you get PEITC?
PEITC is a plant compound that occurs naturally in a large number of foods, especially these. . .
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Kale
- Bok choy
- Collards
- Turnip greens
- Watercress
- Spinach
- Arugula
- Horseradish
- Daikon
- Mustard
- Radish
So you would do well to include them in your diet. And it doesn't take as much as you might expect to reap their anti-cancer benefit — as long as you don't make the mistake of cooking them.
Destroys mutant p53 genes
The p53 gene is regarded as the "guardian of the genome" because of its role in regulating your cell cycles and restraining cancer formation.
High oxidative stress — lots of free radicals -- creates mutations in the p53 gene and thereby promotes cancer cell growth.
Both PEITC and another isothiocyanate called sulforaphane, have been shown to destroy mutant p53 genes. They were in fact shown to spark apoptosis (natural, programmed cell death) in most cancer cells — including even drug-resistant leukemia cells.
Prostate, breast, and lung cancer studies
Half a million new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. alone, each year. Prostate cancer cells are highly resistant to conventional treatments such as chemo and radiotherapy.
The authors note that compared to the high prostate cancer risk in the U.S., incidence is low in India where people eat significantly larger amount of phytochemical-rich plant foods. So, scientists have been interested in investigating treatments based on nutrients in edible plants.
Among their discoveries: PEITC is especially useful when combined with turmeric (curcumin), the mild spice that gives curry its deep yellow tones.
Researchers at Rutgers injected specially bred mice with either curcumin, PEITC, or a combination, three times per week for one month. The injections -- especially the combination of PEITC and curcumin -- significantly slowed tumor growth.
They also tested for the therapeutic value of curcumin and PEITC against tumors that were already well-established. Results? Each treatment by itself had little impact, but combining the two "significantly reduced" tumor growth.3
More evidence it helps treat breast cancer
HER2 is an oncogene — a gene with the potential to cause cancer. It's linked to a poor prognosis in 30% of breast cancer patients.
PEITC treatment substantially reduced the expression of HER2, and induced apoptosis in HER2 cells.4
In another study, this one at the University of Pittsburgh, intake of PEITC for 29 weeks was associated with a 53.13 percent decrease in mammary tumors. It achieved this result by preventing the formation of new blood vessels and inducing apoptosis.5
The exact mechanism by which PEITC causes apoptosis (natural cell death) is still unclear.
Clinical studies using PEITC for lung cancer are currently underway.
What to do next
Whether as a preventive or therapeutic, you can't go wrong by taking these steps:
- Include cruciferous veggies in your diet every day
- Make a special point of using broccoli sprouts regularly. Sprouts are more nutrient-dense than full-grown vegetables. They're also very inexpensive and easy to prepare for eating.
- Steam or marinate your veggies to break down their fibrous outer shell. Do not microwave!
- To maintain all essential nutrients in raw form and still soften them, marinate them in apple cider vinegar for 30 to 60 minutes before eating.
- Metastatic cancer patients or others with compromised immune systems should juice their vegetables to maximize their nutrient absorption and limit the stress and energy needed to digest them. With juicing, you discard most of the fiber, which would otherwise fill you up and pass through you undigested. You just drink in nutrients that cross the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and nourish you.
Have you tried these strategies and found them helpful? Please share your favorite RAW cruciferous veggie recipe with all of us, on our Facebook page.
