You Can't Starve' Cancer, But You May Help Treat It with Food

[Julieanne]

James Hamblin
May 20 2019

There is no single “cancer diet.”

Cancer cells grow in distinctive patterns that defy normal limitations.
That growth activity requires energy, and so cancer cells metabolize nutrients in different ways from the healthy cells around them. In an attempt to kill the tumor without killing the normally functioning cells, chemotherapy drugs target these pathways inside of cancer cells.


https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...cancer/589714/

[Islander]

Yesterday Mercola was promoting the health factors in broccoli. Although the emphasis was not on cancer, an excerpt:

"Science has proven time after time that food is potent medicine. Broccoli, for example, has a solid scientific foundation showing it’s one of the most valuable health-promoting foods around. While it contains several health-promoting compounds, one of the most widely studied is sulforaphane.
The cancer-fighting properties of sulforaphane are perhaps the most well-known, but it has also been shown to benefit your heart and brain, boosting detoxification¹ and helping prevent and/or treat high blood pressure,² heart disease, Alzheimer’s³ and even autism.^4,5,6 Now, researchers report sulforaphane may also be helpful in the treatment of schizophrenia.^7,8,9"
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a..._rid=622336459

[Mr. Wizard]

Broccoli "sprouts" are better than plain old broccoli. The sprouts contain 10 to 100 times more sulforaphane than broccoli florets and the spears. Sulforaphane is antioxidant, antimcrobial, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatroy, neuroprotective, and anti-diabetic. Broccoli sprouts go great on a salad.

[Julieanne]

Broccoli seeds in bulk for sprouting are expensive here in Oz, not sure why. I grow some of my own, but I wonder if other brassicas are equally beneficial when sprouted? I have a variety of perennial kale that produces a lot of seed that I use for sprouts. The cheapest to buy are mustard seeds, also brassicas. I'd love to know if there really is a big difference between them all.

[Islander]

And I've wondered if organic broccoli seeds intended for growing are less expensive, oz for oz. Prolly not.

[Pattypans]

We can get organic broccoli in the organic farmers' market here (it's a 'winter'-hahahah-vegetable only, even though it grows in a very nearby, cooler mountainous area), but not broccoli seeds for sprouting. I used to sprout broccoli seeds, but can't anymore for this reason. Well, to be exact, we can get 'rapini' aka 'broccoli raab' (called 'common broccoli' here) pretty much all year round, but I prefer the sort we're talking about in this thread, which is called 'American broccoli' here.

[Islander]

I suppose it's possible to let your broccoli go to seed at the end of the growing season and collect all those seeds for sprouting. It shouldn't matter whether they've been hybridized since you don't intend to grow more actual broccoli plants, right?

[Julieanne]

Not too sure about that. I avoid hybridised seed because it may not germinate. I might be wrong about that? Anyway, packaged seed intended for the garden is far too expensive for sprouting. An Oz seed company supplies bulk seed, but still expensive. I used to buy broccoli seed from iherb, but they no longer ship to Oz - possibly a customs regulation.

Any answer to my earlier question re the benefits of different brassica sprouts?

[Islander]

There is no inherent problem with germination of seeds from hybrid plants if you are intending merely to sprout them. The problem comes if you plant them with the expectation of getting the same plant you grew last year. Hybrids are crosses, of course, and the second generation will revert to the original parentage — not necessarily a plant you would recognize or one that would have the characteristics you looked for when you planted the original hybrids. I favor heirloom seeds, but there are certain hybrid cultivars that I grow for specific reasons: peppers for productivity in our short growing season, and tomatoes because the dazzling array of varieties allows you to select for exactly the traits you want, like earliness or disease resistance.

[Mr. Wizard]

....."...but I wonder if other brassicas are equally beneficial when sprouted? I'd love to know if there really is a big difference between them all.

Julieanne, my research indicates that all brassicas contain sulforaphane and the sprouts are all beneficial. It does appear that broccoli sprouts have the highest concentration of sulforaphane, but that's not always a good thing, as sulforaphane really hypes up the immune system and too much at one time may not be what some people need. Bottom line: all brassicas sprouts contain sulforaphane to varying degrees, but all have beneficial nutritional ingredients.

[Julieanne]

Thanks Mr Wiz - That's a great explanation! I'll continue sprouting seeds I can buy cheaply and grow some of my own. End-of-season rocket going to seed now, also a brassica.