Healthy food is good for you. We have all heard this in one variation or another. For many people, the idea of eating healthy has become a platitude and heard far too often to carry meaning. It’s the broken record in the back of our minds that is too easily ignored. But the importance of healthy eating is far from meaningless and extends way beyond taking a daily multivitamin. Sure we know the basics: vitamin C prevents colds, magnesium is good for constipation, and calcium builds strong bones. But did you know there are compounds in our food, other than vitamins and minerals, that protect our health in unique ways?
There has been extensive research on hundreds of compounds present in plant foods and how they protect us from disease, including cancer, which is our focus today. What exactly are these compounds that make healthy food healthy if they aren’t vitamins and minerals? The answer is phytonutrients.
Phytonutrients
Phytonutrients (also called phytochemicals) are chemicals produced by fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and other plant foods. They are the compounds that create plant pigments and serve to protect the plant that produces them. For example, phytonutrients help discourage insect attacks as well as protect against UV radiation. Amazingly, these compounds also confer their protective benefits to humans when they consume phytonutrient-rich plants. In general, each plant color portrays unique health benefits, such that eating a variety of colorful plants is the best way to reap these benefits.
Phytonutrients have the power to alter human health in a variety of ways. Phytonutrients can improve hormone balance, lower disease risk, fight off infections, repair DNA damage, detoxify from carcinogens, increase cell communication, reduce inflammation, and so much more. Although they are not considered essential for life (like vitamins and minerals are), phytonutrients help enhance our lives and increase our vitality.
You have likely heard of several phytonutrients without quite knowing that this is what they were. Beta-carotene in carrots, lycopene in tomatoes, curcumin in turmeric spice, resveratrol in grapes, and isoflavones in soy products, are all common types of phytonutrients. In fact, phytonutrients are categorized into several different classes, each of which is broken down into smaller groups. These groups each contain hundreds of phytonutrients, making a total of over 25,000 phytonutrient types! Research has shown that each type of phytonutrient has specific benefits that differ from the benefits of another type. This is why eating a variety of plant foods is so essential, as it gives us the whole spectrum of benefits from the phytonutrients in our diet.
The benefits of specific phytonutrients include cancer protection and prevention.
How Phytonutrients Fight Cancer
Nothing about cancer is straight-forward, but there are processes that occur early-on that are common to how all cancers start. In its broadest terms, cancer is about abnormal growth. Cells that shouldn’t be growing but for some reason are. All cancer cells act similarly in a variety of ways: they have loss of control over normal cell growth, they replicate quickly, they produce large amounts of free radicals, and they spread to other parts of the body.
Studies have shown that certain phytonutrients can interrupt one or more of the above processes, giving us a preventative effect against cancer. They do this by being:
- Anti-metastatic (prevents cancer cells from spreading)
- Induce apoptosis (causes selective death of cancer cells)
- Anti-proliferative (prevents growth of cancer cells)
- Scavenge free radicals (fights off unstable molecules that destroy DNA)
Let’s see which phytonutrients fight cancer in these ways.
Which Phytonutrients Fight Cancer
Anti-Metastatic:
Isothiocyanates are a class of phytonutrients that contain sulfur. These compounds can prevent cancer cells from spreading to other areas of the body (ie metastasizing). isothiocyanates are mainly found in cruciferous vegetables. Vegetables in this category include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale, spinach, cauliflower, bok choy, cabbage, and collard greens. Resveratrol, a phytonutrient found in grapes, blueberries, and cranberries, also helps prevent cancer from spreading.
Induce Apoptosis:
Apoptosis means programmed cell death. Healthy body cells have a system of checks and balances to eliminate or recycle old cells before making new cells. Before growth can occur, old cells have to die and be cleared from the body. However, cancer cells don’t operate this way. Cancer cells, by nature, don’t know when to stop growing, and so the body needs to turn on apoptosis (cell death) in order to curb cancer growth.
Several phytonutrients induce apoptosis. These are lutein, lycopene, flavonoids, and isothiocyanates. Lutein is found in spinach, kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, and collard greens. Lycopene is found in the highest amounts in tomatoes, watermelon, grapefruit, and papaya. Flavonoids make up a very large group of phytonutrients and contain some better-known types including quercetin and isoflavones. Flavonoids are found in a range of foods including green and black teas, onions, broccoli, kale, citrus fruit, berries, red wine, apples, and legumes. Lastly, isothiocyanates were discussed above and are found in cruciferous vegetables.
Anti-Proliferative:
Plenty of phytonutrients prevent cancer cell growth, including lycopene, curcumin, flavonoids, and isothiocyanates. Lycopene, mentioned earlier, is found in tomatoes, watermelon, grapefruit, and papaya. Curcumin, the main compound found in turmeric spice, also acts as an anti-proliferative agent. Flavonoids make another re-appearance here and are found in green and black teas, citrus fruit, berries, red wine, apples, and legumes. Isothiocyanates have a broad-spectrum effect on cancer development since they are repeated here as well. This compound is found in cruciferous vegetables.
Scavenge Free Radicals:
Free radicals are unstable molecules created by harmful compounds that damage our cells and create oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is responsible for disease development and the acceleration of the aging process. Toxins, processed foods, prolonged stress, overuse of medications, and cigarette smoke are all examples of what produces free radicals. But did you know they are also created naturally by the body as well? Our body produces free radicals as a waste product every time our mitochondria makes ATP (energy for cells). So, whenever we need energy (which is all the time), our body is producing free radical waste! Our bodies recognize this however and take steps to balance and neutralize free radicals using certain enzymes. Antioxidants in our diet (like vitamins C and E) also help prevent damage from these unstable molecules. The trouble comes when there is an over-accumulation of free radicals in our body that we can’t keep up with the cleaning. Excessive free radical damage can lead to cancer and other diseases.
Fortunately, many phytonutrients act as antioxidants, neutralizing free radicals and preventing the cell damage they create. These phytonutrients include flavonoids and carotenoids. Flavonoids, specifically quercetin and anthocyanidin, protect against oxidative stress brought on by free radicals. Quercetin-containing foods include onions, cranberries, kale, blueberries, and apples. Anthocyanin is found in berries, red cabbage, purple potatoes, eggplant, red grapes, and red onions.
Carotenoids, specifically lycopene and beta-carotene are the other phytonutrients most active against free radicals. Lycopene, as mentioned before, is found in tomatoes, watermelon, grapefruit, and papaya. Beta-carotene foods include carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut squash, cantaloupe, and red peppers.
The research on chemo-preventive agents such as phytonutrients is increasing and ongoing. Thus far the studies have shown promising results of these plant compounds’ anti-cancer effects. As we can see, different phytonutrients act differently upon the processes of cancer development, such that an array of phytonutrients is needed in order to get maximum benefit. Indeed, a variety of whole foods, rich in color, is the best way to get this combination of phytonutrients (not to mention the other nutrients you’d be getting as well). The best time to start preventing cancer (or slowing down its progression) is right now. With the foods you are eating and the habits you are forming. It’s time to replace the nutritional wasteland that is the standard American diet, with whole foods that are nutrient abundant. Adopting this way of eating will give you all the synergistic benefits of food and the realization of how our bodies were designed to operate.