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Medicine Foods: Broccoli
Another common food that works as excellent medicine for our bodies is
broccoli. Most people know that broccoli is nutritious, but what they don't
know is that it can actually help fight cancer as well. Broccoli actually
kills cancer cells, as do other cruciferous vegetables such as brussel
sprouts. When you combine the cancer power of broccoli with the medicinal
power of other vegetables and fruits, though, you end up with an even more
powerful natural food medicine.
According to the Web MD blog in April of 2007, for instance, new research
results have shown that eating both broccoli and tomatoes on a daily basis is
actually effective at fighting prostate tumors in men.
The study was conducted on rats at the University of Illinois, and it compared
the results of feeding these rats tomatoes by themselves, broccoli by itself,
the two combined together, or just a lycopene supplement, which is a compound
found in tomatoes which has received a lot of press in recent years.
At the end of 22 weeks, the size of the rat's tumors were inspected. Those
that were eating a combination of 10% broccoli and 10% tomatoes showed the
prostrate tumors were reduced by 52%. Those that ate just broccoli during the
test had tumors reduced by 42%, and those that had just tomatoes were reduced
by 34%. The lycopene supplement test group however, only showed a 7% reduction
for those who were fed small doses and 18% for those who were fed 10 times
the smaller amounts.
Based on these results, scientists are not recommending that you simply take a
supplement to try and fight or prevent cancer. In fact, hundreds of studies
over the last decade or two have pointed more and more towards foods which
have major medical benefits, but these foods need to be eaten in full to get
the most benefit from them. In some cases, like in the above study
example, mixing two or more medicine foods together will give the best
results.
This happens because there is not one single compound within foods which is a
miracle ingredient of some kind. All of the various compounds must work
together to give the best benefits. Also, in most cases, these medicine foods
must be eaten raw in order to derive the most health benefits from them.
Tomatoes, though, are an exception. They actually give more benefits after
they've been cooked or turned into a paste or sauce form instead.
Broccoli is best eaten raw and it actually releases more of it's medical
compounds after it has been cut and left to sit for a few minutes first. It is
still quite healthy to cook it though, as long as you don't over cook it. When
cooking broccoli, just cook or steam it lightly for the best results.
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