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By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine
I know that talking about your bowel function certainly isn’t a pleasant subject. But, let’s be honest, the typical refined and highly processed diet many of us eat can lead to constipation and diverticular disease. It can also increase your risk of potentially deadly colon and rectal cancer.
Our digestive system was never designed to handle all the fats, sugar and preservatives commonly found within most every product on our grocery store shelves. But two new studies have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables, and washing them down with green tea and red wine can offer up some potent protection against both of these killer cancers.
What’s the secret? These plant-based foods and beverages contain flavonoids and lipids, compounds thought to interfere with cancer-causing processes.
Foods Rich In Catechins
During the first study, Dutch scientists estimated the intake of specific flavonoids of more than 120,000 men and women, 55 to 69 years old, who filled out dietary surveys as part of a larger study designed to assess the connection between diet and cancer. Over the next 13 years, about 2,500 of the participants developed colon or rectal cancer. Compared with those who ate the fewest foods rich in catechins—common in berries, grapes, black chocolate, tea, red wine and beans—those who consumed the most had a lower colorectal cancer risk. This was particularly true among the overweight men and normal weight women. The researchers saw a similar trend for flavonols—potent antioxidants found in onions, kale, apples, pears, tea, red wine and fruit juices—in the normal weight women.
The Power Of Sphingadienes
The second study—which took place at Children’sHospital & Research Center in Oakland, California—was more specific, concentrating solely on soy. The researchers discovered that natural lipid molecules called sphingadienes may be responsible for some of the cancer-preventive benefits found for soy products. It turns out that these sphingadienes cause cancer cells to commit suicide on a precise schedule, a process known as programmed cell death or apoptosis.
But soy may keep your colon healthy in another way, too. In another experiment on mice, those who were given sphingadienes from soy averaged 35 percent fewer polyps (benign colon tumors that can become cancerous in humans). Plus, the polyps that did develop were considerably smaller compared to those detected in untreated animals.
Pay Attention To Your Diet
While I’ve long suspected that adding more fruits and vegetables to the typical American diet could help reduce disease, these two studies offer proof positive that loading up on produce can significantly lower your risk of both colon and rectal cancer. Not only do these healthy foods boast plentiful amounts of phytonutrients, most also provide fiber, that indigestible “nutrient” that reduces constipation and helps eliminate toxins from the colon.
Adding at least three cups of green tea and one four-ounce glass of red wine to your diet each day can give you even more protection. Bottom line? Paying just a little more attention to what you feed your large intestine just might save your life.
References:
Fyrst H. Natural Sphingadienes Inhibit Akt-Dependent Signaling and Prevent Intestinal Tumorigenesis. Cancer Research. 2009;69:9457-9464.
Park IJ. Green tea catechin controls apoptosis in colon cancer cells by attenuation of H2O2-stimulated COX-2 expression via the AMPK signaling pathway at low-dose H2O2. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 2009;1171:538-544.
Simons C. Dietary flavonol, flavone and catechin intake and risk of colorectal cancer in the Netherlands Cohort Study. International Journal of Cancer. 2009;125: 2945-2952.
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