Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Randy
Certain plant phytonutrients help stimulate natural detoxifying enzymes in our bodies. Broccoli, for example, is an excellent source of sulforaphane, a phytonutrient that helps our liver to detoxify and may help fight cancer. The key for maximizing sulforaphane is to allow myrosinase enzymes to produce sulforaphane in cruciferous vegetables by either eating them raw or adding myrosinase enzymes in the form of mustard powder to cooked, or pre-chopping the cruciferous vegetables, waiting at least 40 minutes, and then cooking. It is a common misconception that plant foods must be eaten raw because cooking deactivates live plant enzymes that we supposedly require.
Specific plant foods may also have different effects on our enzymes. For example, COX-1 is an enzyme that helps protect our stomach lining, whereas COX-2 is an enzyme responsible for pain and inflammation. Taking aspirin may suppress the harmful COX-2, but also the helpful COX-1, while consuming cherries preferentially suppresses COX-2. Another example can be found with mushrooms; consuming five white mushrooms a day may be enough to suppress the enzyme breast cancer cells use to metastasize. One of the reasons plant-based diets protect against obesity may be because they boost the enzyme CPT, which helps burn fat.
There is an enzyme called TOR which plays a role in aging. Reducing leucine by restricting animal proteins like dairy may lower TOR activity. The enzyme telomerase, on the other hand, may help rebuild telomeres and slow the aging process.
For substantiation of any statements of fact from the peer-reviewed medical literature, please see the associated videos below.
There is a food that offers the best of both worlds—significantly improving our ability to detox carcinogens like diesel fumes and decreasing inflammation in our airways—all while improving our respiratory defenses against infections.
What happens to hormone levels in women and men randomized to drink soy milk?
How might beans, berries, and intact (not just whole) grains reduce colon cancer risk?
Every hour, there are 800 incidents of DNA damage in our bodies. Which foods help us patch back up: apples, broccoli, celery, choy sum, lemons, lettuce, oranges, persimmons, or strawberries?
Why should we wait ten minutes after chopping or crushing garlic before we cook it unless we’re going in for elective surgery within the next week?
Adding myrosinase enzymes in the form of even a pinch of mustard powder to cooked cruciferous (cabbage-family) vegetables like kale, collards or Brussels sprouts can offer anti-cancer sulforaphane levels comparable to raw, removing the necessity to pre-chop for maximum health benefits.
Which foods are best at removing carcinogenic bile acids from the body: asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, eggplant, green beans, kale, mustard greens, okra, or peppers? And do they work better raw or cooked?
Sweet red Bing cherries may act as a selective COX-2 inhibitor, reducing inflammation without the damage to our stomach and gut lining caused by NSAID drugs like ibuprofen.
The lifespan extension associated with dietary restriction may be due less to a reduction in calories, and more to a reduction in animal protein (particularly the amino acid leucine, which may accelerate aging via the enzyme TOR).
A bacteria discovered on Easter Island may hold the key to the proverbial fountain of youth by producing rapamycin, which inhibits the engine-of-aging enzyme TOR.
Human beings lost the ability to detoxify uric acid millions of years ago. What implications does this have for our health today?
Researchers pit plain white mushrooms against breast cancer cells in vitro to measure aromatase activity, and estimate how many mushrooms women may want to strive to include in their daily diet.
There are a few examples of plant enzymes having physiologically relevant impacts on the human diet, and the formation of sulforaphane in broccoli is one of them.
The most powerful natural inducer of our liver’s detoxifying enzyme system is sulforaphane, a phytonutrient produced by broccoli.
Eating broccoli appears to make DNA more resistant to damage.
The insecticide and fungicide compound found naturally in avocados (persin) may damage the DNA of normal cells, as well as cancer cells.
Some nutrients are destroyed by cooking, but some nutrients become more absorbable.
