We live in a toxic world with chemicals coming from air, water, food, pharmaceuticals, skin care products, clothing, furniture, carpet, office equipment etc. etc.
The most important thing you can do for your body right now is to support it to not only detox these chemicals but the chemicals being used to kill your cancer. The most powerful vegetables you can eat to do this come from the Cruciferous family.
Anti-Cancer Foods
Ongoing research points to the anti-cancer effects of compounds found in broccoli, kale, green and red cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, garlic and onions.
These vegetables have a profound ability to shield cells from several processes that can transform healthy cells into malignant tumors. 1 Two cruciferous compounds are especially well validated: sulforaphane and 3,3” -diindolylmethane (DIM). The benefits are supported by medical literature.
DIM is a compound that is readily absorbed from the digestive track but Sulforaphane is very unstable. The power of Sulforaphane can quickly diminish if not absorbed quickly or it is heavily cooked.
Actually Sulforaphane isn’t found in the vegetables themselves but a “pre-cursor” called glucoraphanin along with an enzyme called myrosi-nase, that converts the glucoraphanin into sulforaphane.
DIM, Sulforaphane and Breast Cancer
In human cancer cell lines, including breast cancer and leukemia, sul-foraphane was shown to halt the growth of the tumors and to kill tumor cells.2 The benefit of DIM supplementation has been evaluated in two studies of women with a history of breast cancer. In both studies, wom-en were randomized to receive DIM supplementation (108mg per day in one, 300mg per day in the other) or a placebo. DIM was found to signifi-cantly alter the mix of estrogen types, supporting an increase in “good” estrogen and reducing “bad” estrogen, which is linked to cancer pro-gression. 3.4
Whew, that’s kinda heavy stuff! So how do we get the power of sul-foraphane into our bodies? We either eat it raw or cook it very lightly and we have to have good digestion to break it down and get it into the blood stream from the small intestine.
Digestive Challenges
As a cancer patient you may have lost your appetite for “healthy” foods and what you crave are simple carbohydrates. Sitting down to eat a bowl of broccoli may not sound so good right now! Your digestion may not be working as well and you may have nausea, so what to do?
Try drinking a soothing digestive tea such as chamomile or ginger thirty minutes prior to eating. Additionally, taking some digestive “bitters” or a low-dose hydrochloric acid supplement ten to fifteen minutes prior to eat-ing may help as well. When you do eat, take a digestive enzyme (as di-rected on label) to break down the cruciferous compounds so they can quickly be absorbed into your blood stream for the highest benefits pos-sible.
Finally, chew well!! Chewing breaks apart the outer “cells” of the brocco-li, kale, cabbage etc. so the amylase enzyme in your saliva can start breaking down the fiber immediately. At least once a day count to “10” chews before you swallow a raw or lightly cooked cruciferous vegetable and see how it feels 🙂
How Cruciferous Vegetables Help You Beat Cancer
How the heck do these compounds help you?
The toxins coming into your body every day have to be identified by your liver as “friend or foe.” Once the liver decides it’s a “foe” it wants to help the body to eliminate it out of our bodies through the skin, lungs, bowels, kidneys and lymphatic system.
Here in lies the problem….If our liver does not have the “tools” it needs to detox it sends these toxins back into the blood stream where they are stored in fat tissue. When we eat these cruciferous compounds we give the liver the “tools” it needs to detox these environmental chemicals, in-cluding the xenoestrogens found in plastics, our water, pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, chemotherapy and radiation.
Cruciferous compounds are also very anti-inflammatory. There has been a direct correlation between inflammation and cancer so cooling off the fire is super important to help our body fight the cancer.5 Additionally, these vegetables are in the alkaline family which helps lower inflamma-tion.
Now you can see how valuable these cruciferous compounds can be in your fight against cancer! One serving per day (1/2 cup) or more can be a super powerful addition to your diet. Try this recipe tonight!
Garlic Parmesan Roasted Broccoli
Ingredients:
- 1 large head of organic broccoli cut into “florets”
- 3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- Pink Himalayan salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
- Juice of 1 lemon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425 and lightly oil a baking sheet
- Place broccoli florets in a single layer onto the baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over florets and mix well. Sprinkle salt, pepper and garlic over florets and mix well.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or just tender
- Remove from oven and sprinkle Parmesan cheese and lemon juice over broccoli.
- Serve and enjoy!
About the Author: Chris McKee
Chris McKee is a Certified Nutritionist and Certified Diet Counselor with over 30 years of experience in whole-food cooking, healthy lifestyle coaching, individual nutritional counseling and speaking to 1,000’s of people about the role of good nutrition in preventing disease.
Chris is also a Certified Nutragenomix practitioner and this allows her to look deep into your genetic profile and personalize your nutrition program based on your unique genetic fingerprint.
She runs on-line courses including her 10 Day Clean Eating Challenge, 21 Days Prepping for the Keto Diet as well as her Hope 4 Cancer Recovery program.
Chris and her husband Ed love to travel, hence the name “The Nomadic Nutritionist”. She is a grandmother of four and a great-grandma of two! She loves to cook, explore new food finds, hike and fish.
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