Chlorophyll, the most ubiquitous plant pigment in the world, may protect our DNA against mutation by intercepting carcinogens.
Eating Green to Prevent Cancer
Doctor's Note
For more on the antioxidant mechanism, see Antioxidant Power of Plant Foods Versus Animal Foods. For more on boosting our liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens, see The Best Detox, and for more on boosting our DNA repair enzymes, see Kiwifruit and DNA Repair. These are but a few of the various beneficial roles played by Phytochemicals: The Nutrition Facts Missing From the Label, and it’s not just the green pigments. There are yellow ones; orange ones; red ones; and blue ones. Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book! That’s it for Volume 10—thanks for everyone’s continued interest in my work. Volume 11 is next!
For further context, check out my associated blog posts: Eating Green to Prevent Cancer; Prevent Breast Cancer by Any Greens Necessary; and Foods That May Block Cancer Formation.
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.
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For more on the antioxidant mechanism, see Antioxidant Power of Plant Foods Versus Animal Foods. For boosting our liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens, see The Best Detox, and for boosting our DNA repair enzymes, Kiwifruit and DNA Repair. These are but a few of the various beneficial roles played by Phytochemicals: The Nutrition Facts Missing From the Label, and it’s not just the green pigments. There are the yellow ones, orange ones, red ones, and blue ones. Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book! That’s it for volume 10—thanks for everyone’s continued interest in my work.
If you haven’t yet, you can subscribe to my videos for free by clicking here.
Can’t wait! Have been looking forward to “Saffron for PMS.” Already purchased squash seeds, based on one of your videos, for the same reason.
I’m Green with Envy!
;-}
I don’t know, Dr. G.
.To the villagers of Whoville he’ll serve up red meat
You recall the holiday table offering “roast beast”
And surely the green eggs paired with fat ham
would not be the green we want to feed to our fam.
The heart of the Grinch was enlarged with compassion,
or so says Dr. Seuss
but perhaps it was that serving of browned butter moose.
Dr. Seuss may be colorful be he needs to “green up.” Love the Lorax, but he’s got to do better ;^) Maybe a New Seuss book is in order.
This is great!
However, is this saying that we have to consume the chlorophyll and carcinogens, simultaneously? Or is it not enough to have the chlorophyll in our bodies so that when we do eat carcinogens it is there to protect us??
Good question! Absorption is always a concern. There are so many “what-if’s” that my philosophy is to just load up on the greens and assume the best. But, yea, I would like to know all the details. We are all so different, that no matter what studies or facts show, there are always variables that can change it for certain people.
all I know is, Greens have been the #1 healing food for me.
GO Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeens!!!!
Strix, I have a pot of flat leaf parsley always growing out front and I try to grab a bunch of it *every day* to eat…sometimes even on my way to work…LIVE greens with their beautiful chlorophyll are even nicer! But folks, DO what you can to heed Doc’s advice…great video here! *EAT*GREEN*EVERY*DAY!
Awesome! Instead of grabbing a doughnut, right? I bet you have the best morning breath in your town.
My favorite living food is broccoli sprouts. Those are a staple for me.
I like parsley. It’s a little underrated, don’t you think? I used to juice it all the time, but find I like a big handful in my salads too.
The study refers to another study done on fish comparing the effect of a preload with chlorophyll and says:
“This result showed that preloading the animal with CHL, even at a dose sufficient to turn the liver, skin, and bile green, did not provide any form of induction that
could protect against AFB1. Instead, CHL and AFB1 coexposure was necessary and sufficient for protection”
So I would say it is important to consume it at the same time.
Thanks Dr. Greger for this excellent video. I appreciate that we come away learning something new about why plant-based diets work.
Interestingly, this study looks at preventing the initiatiation step of cancer by chlorophyll binding to aflatoxin — the same carcinogen that Dr. Campbell (from ‘The China study’) discussed in connection with studies on cancer promotion.
In the aflatoxin-chlorophyll study, did they consider intake of animal protein (or was it plant based diet only)? The China Study reported increased animal protein intake increases carcinogenic effects of aflatoxin. Thanks for the great videos you post!
Dr. Greger, you make my day. It is so refreshing to listen to someone with common sense contributions re. nutrition.
Thank you!,
You make a difference for me.
Powerful piece: I wonder if the results would hold true if leafy green vegetables (or those densest in chlorophyll) were fed to subjects, instead of the isolated compound. Ditto for the aflatoxin.
Because of the complex interactions, it’s possible that green vegetables with less chlorophyll and more of a different detoxifier would have a more neutralizing affect. Real foods are harder to study than the compounds we think are active…but ulitimately, it’s what people eat!
Keep up the great work.JL
http://drjohnlapuma.com
There are also studies showing that strongly pigmented foodstuffs like chlorophyll, beetroot, turmeric, red grapes, etc., stain not only your shirt-front, but also selectively stain any cancer cells thus acting as markers and better attracting anti-cancer defences..This is a secondary benefit of strongly coloured plants.along with their higher antioxidant values.
Now I can safely eat my aflatoxin
there is no way I am eating chloroform. that stuff is dangerous!
Chlorophyll and chloroform are not the same thing.
I think he was making a funny.
is there any proof that liquid chlorophyl sold at health store is doing the same as the green ? any risks at taking it? some ppl at my work swear by it, and i find it kind of weird.
Were they taking capsules or eating a certain amount?
What about chlorophyll in an IV drip?
What about the fact that vegan diet being rich in nuts in itself is a potential threat? Many studies conclude that the presence of aflatoxins in nuts (pistachios, almonds, cashews, of course peanuts) is a huge hazard for human health :( It’s scary that the incidence of molds, producing aflatoxins in nuts varies between 30% and as much as 91%, according to different studies.
Wow, this is some wild stuff here! As a 64 year old Vietnam veteran I had bee falling apart for years until I tried and kept using some of these new fangelled old school things. Who’da thunk they would work so well! I am reversing secondary progressive MS and dang it I like that!
Excellent to hear Allan, please see here for more on MS
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/treating-multiple-sclerosis-with-the-swank-ms-diet/
http://nutritionfacts.org/2014/07/22/how-to-treat-multiple-sclerosis-with-diet/
What a great video! Forgot all about it. Thanks for reposting. It would be interesting to see the same study but with beef, chicken, fish etc for other Heterocyclic aromatic amines (like PhIP) and Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Maybe you already did a video on this but I don’t recall. See you this evening. It will be interesting to see the discussion panel.
I saw today on the internet in an article by Rheanna O’Neil Bellomo that kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and collard greens hyper accumulate thallium and cesium and have traces of nickel, lead, cadmium, aluminum and arsenic that they get from the soil. She quotes a molecular biologist Ernie Hummard who says this is true for both organic and non organically raised product. He told this to Craftmanship magazine. She concludes that you shouldn’t eat much of these products. Is there any truth to this?
http://nutritionfacts.org/video/cadmium-and-cancer-plant-vs-animal-foods/
The demonstration that: (1) light-sensitive
chlorophyll-type molecules are sequestered into
animal tissues; (2) in the presence of the chlorophyll metabolite P-a,
there
is an increase in ATP in isolated animal
mitochondria, tissue homogenates and in C. elegans, upon exposure to light of wavelengths absorbed by P-a; and (3) in the presence of P-a, light alters fundamental biology
resulting in up to a 17% extension of life span in C. elegans suggests that, similarly to plants and photosynthetic organisms, animals also possess metabolic pathways to derive energy
directly from sunlight. Additional studies should confirm these conclusions. http://jcs.biologists.org/content/127/2/388.long
I guess grandmother’s advice was right: eat your greens.
Thats a very informative video!
I hear people getting liquid chlorophyll from the health food store for this reason…