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International Specialty Supply Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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Eating Well
Food News PSA rising Magazine Prostrate Cancer News May
25 2000. SUPER-BROCCOLI bred from garden broccoli and a wild Sicilian variety is the latest veggie to hold out anti-cancer promise. The team that developed super-broccoli at the John Innes Centre at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, England now have two commercial partners. "The
super-broccoli looks and tastes the same as ordinary broccoli," says Gary
Williamson, a member of the research team that bred the plant. Compared with
regular broccoli, super-broccoli contains 10 to 100 times as much sulphoraphane,
the substance that helps to neutralize cancer-causing agents in the gut. This
makes super-broccoli as potent as broccoli sprouts -- and the new broccoli may
be more convenient to market, prepare and eat. Sulphoraphane
is found in all cabbage-family plants (brassicas), which run from cabbage,
collard greens and kale to brussel sprouts and cauliflower. Broccoli has the
most sulphoraphane. As
the broccoli is digested, it releases sulphoraphane in the gut. This steps up
production of glutathione transferases -- powerful enzymes that destroy
cancer-causing substances in foods such as broiled and barbecued meat. Trials
with human volunteers will begin soon to see how much effect the super-broccoli
has in the gut and the bloodstream compared with ordinary broccoli. The
researchers hope to show that the super-broccoli is better at protecting the DNA
in cells from aging. A lot
of evidence already suggests that a diet high in vegetables protects against
cancer of the colon. For prostate cancer, some evidence (like the JNCI article
listed in our sidebar) suggests that it too may be prevented or held in check by
a diet high in green vegetables as well as by lycopene in tomatoes, watermelon, and
strawberries. The
researchers are at pains to stress that super-broccoli is not a genetically
modified (GM) plant. "No gene has been inserted through genetic
modification," Richard Mithen, a research team member, Told Reuters.
"This is classical breeding. But we speeded that breeding program up by
using DNA fingerprinting technology.'' |