Selenium: Healthy Food Chemical with Anti-Cancer activity in a Brazil nut Diet

Deep in the Amazon forest in South America lies some of the most unique plant species that cannot be found anywhere else on the Planet. The Brazil nut (Lecythidaceae) is one of such rare but popular plant species. As on of the healthy things to eat, the Brazil nut is a delicious nut, which has been cherished by the Amazonian natives for ages, provides the much needed properties for healthy living. With a vast array of protein, fats and other essential nutrients, the Brazil nut ranks high among many foods which have been grouped by nutritionists as ‘healthy things to eat’. It has high calorie, contains good quantities of vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals. It is believed that 100g of Brazil nut provides 656 calories, much of which comes in form of fat. The fat present in this food is mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which helps to lower bad cholesterol or LDL and increases good cholesterol or HDL. This non anti-cancer healthy blood lipid profile which the Brazil nut provides is helpful in preventing coronary diseases and stroke. Another non anti-cancer importance of Brazil nut is that it is gluten-free which can serve as a healthy alternative for people with wheat flour allergy and celiac disease.

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Curcumin: Food Chemical with Anti-Cancer ability in a Tumeric Diet

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatous, herbaceous, perennial plant of the ginger family called Zingiberaceae. When not used fresh, turmeric rhizomes are boiled for several hours, dried in a hot oven and grinded into a deep, orange-yellow powder commonly used as a spice in curries. When used as a food additive, turmeric is mostly use in savoring dishes. Some of the foods which turmeric can be used include canned beverages, biscuits, sauces, yellow cakes, dairy products, soups, yoghurts and so on.

Research studies have tried to investigate the food chemicals found in turmeric to evaluate their potential effects on diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, cancer and other clinical disorders. According to a 2012 report by the US National Institute for Health, about 71 clinical trials are currently registered to use the food chemical in turmeric for various clinical disorders. One research showed that this food chemical in turmeric reduced the severity of pancreatic-associated lung injury in mice.

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Vitamin C: Common Food Chemical in our Diet with Amazing Anti-Cancer activity

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or Ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and other animal species. Vitamin C as a chemical refers to a number of vitamers that have vitamin C activity in animals, including ascorbic acid and its salts, and other oxidized forms of the molecule, like dehydroascorbic acid. Ascorbate and ascorbic acid are both naturally present when either of them is introduced into the cells.

As food chemicals, vitamin C is widely used as a food additive to prevent scurvy and more importantly, oxidative stress. This food chemical can be oxidized in the human cells by the enzyme, L-ascorbate oxidase. Vitamin C is essentially a healthy thing to eat in foods in both an anti-cancer and non anti-cancer diet,

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Resveratol: Healthy Food Chemical in Red Wine Anti-Cancer Diet that may fight Breast Cancer

Red wine is a type of wine made from dark-colored grapes varieties. The external color of the wine can range from intense violet for young wines, through to brick red for matured wines, and brown for older red wines. The red color of red wine comes from anthocyan pigments present in the skin of the grapes which produce a red colored juice. Most of the red wine’s flavor and color comes from the grape skin. 

Before we go further, it is important to state here that red wine in this context refers to non-alcoholic red wine.  As one of the healthy things to eat, red wine in our diet has a lot of non anti-cancer benefits. One

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Theaflavin: Anti-Cancer Food Chemical in Black Tea Diet

Whether it is green, white, oolong or black, the tea drink is certainly one of the healthy things to eat (or drink) on a daily basis. Tea has been known to be a power-house of anti-oxidants that have been discovered long ago to have both anti-cancer and non anti-cancer abilities. Because the discussion of tea in general is such a broad topic, this review will be taking a look at the anti-cancer perspective of black tea.

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Lentinan: Food Chemical with Anti-Cancer ability in a Shiitake mushroom Diet

The Shiitake Mushroom (Lentinula edodes) is an edible mushroom native to East Asia that has long been considered a delicacy as well as a medicinal mushroom. It is an edible fungus which is regarded as the second most commonly edible mushroom in the world. Extracts of Shiitake mushroom have been used in herbal remedies. As one of the healthy things to eat, the Shiitake mushroom offers so many non anti-cancer health benefits. It is a good source of protein. It contains selenium, a powerful anti-oxidant which helps prevent cell damage. The Shiitake mushroom is also rich in copper, a vital component in red blood cell production. It is a proven fact that Shiitake mushroom in our diet enhances immune effectiveness, cholesterol-lowering and possesses both anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. Some research works also say that eating Shiitake mushroom fights the development and progression of cancer and AIDS by boosting the body’s immune system.

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Lycopene: Food Chemical in Tomato Fruit that makes it an Anti-Cancer Diet

If you are looking an anti-cancer diet and a healthy thing to eat and you come across a tomato fruit (Solanium lycopersicum), then you have probably gotten what you truly deserve. The tomato fruit is one food that can be consumed in diverse ways. It can be eaten raw, or can be as an ingredient in many dishes, sauces and drinks. The tomato fruit has medicinal values that are listless. The nutritional value of this food is such that it contains a lot of vitamins and minerals which can be taken daily in large quantities without worrying about weight gain. As a food with anti-cancer properties, tomato consumption has been associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. Also, the tomato fruit has shown reasonable anti-cancer effect against neck and throat cancer. There is a popular saying that “one tomato a day keeps cancer at bay”. Like every food/fruit in our anti-cancer diet, the tomato fruit contains food chemicals that give it its anti-cancer qualities. The primary food chemical that makes the tomato fruit one of the

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Quercetin: Food Chemical that makes the Apple fruit a very important Anti-Cancer Diet

The apple fruit (Malus domestica) is a pomaceus fruit of the apple tree. It is the most widely known of the many members of the genus Malus that are used by humans. The apple fruit, as one of the healthy things to eat, is laced with important food chemicals that have both anti-cancer properties and other health benefits. The proof that that apple fruit is of great benefit to human health is shown in a report released in 2004. The report showed that the Red Delicious and Granny Smith apple varieties ranked 12^th and 13^th respectively amongst over 100 foods investigated by USDA scientists.

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Benzaldehyde, Coumarins and Lupeol: Food Chemicals in Figs fit for an Anti-Cancer Diet

The fig fruit is also one the healthy things to eat. As a member of the mulberry tree family, it is believed that every part of the fig fruit is beneficial to human health. Some of the non anti-cancer benefits of the fig fruit includes the

1.       Treatment of sexual weakness

2.       Treatment of constipation and indigestion

3.       Treatment of Pile

4.       Treatment of diabetes

5.       Treatment of cough, bronchitis and asthma

6.       It can also be helpful in weight gain after illness

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Capsaicin: Anti-Cancer Food Chemical in Chili Pepper Diet

This may come as a shock to many individuals but it’s the truth anyways. The chili pepper (Capsicum annum) is certainly one of the many healthy things to eat as a food. The capsicum fruits which include bell pepper, wax, cayenne, jalapenos and chiltepin are consumed worldwide as food additives but little is known of its healthy anti-cancer properties. It is believed that eating lots of chili pepper may be able to reduce blood pressure (although the daily requirement for that is not certain). But as a food supplement which is another member of our anti-cancer diet, chili pepper is linked with the prevention of both stomach and prostate cancer.

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Acetogenin: Healthy Food Chemical in Paw Paw Fruit found in an Anti-Cancer Diet

The Paw-Paw fruit (Asimina triloba), also known as Papaw or Papaya is an edible fruit associated with the custard-apple family. It is also a cousin of Graviola, Guanabana, Sweetsop and Soursop fruit. The Paw-Paw fruit is yet another food that has been added to our anti-cancer diet. As one of the healthy things to eat, the Paw-Paw fruit is known to have beneficial medicinal effect on the human body. This fruit is one of the few anti-cancer foods used for alternative cancer treatment because it contains food chemicals that can pass through the blood-brain barrier. In fact, this food chemical form the Paw-Paw fruit, and the tree as well have shown anti-cancer activity against a wide range of cancers especially adeno-carcinoma, colon and prostate cancer.

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Indole-3-carbinol and Sulforaphane: Food Chemicals in Anti-Cancer Diets that make Broccoli a Healthy Thing to Eat

The cruciferous vegetables are a group of vegetables that are known to be one of the healthy things to eat because they have been known, amongst many things, to have anti-cancer properties. The members of this very important class of vegetables include:

1.       Broccoli

2.       Cabbage

3.       Kale

4.       Cauliflower etc.

As vegetables that can be added to our daily anti-cancer diet, these cancer-fighting, cruciferous vegetables contain important food chemicals which research has shown to have anti-cancer activities in both preventing and fighting cancer. For this article, we shall be focusing on broccoli as a representative of the cruciferous vegetables.

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Falcarinol: a food chemical that makes the Carrot a healthy anti-cancer diet

The carrot fruit is known to be one of the active anti-cancer foods. This is because this fruit contains some of the finest chemical compounds that are of great benefit to the human body. Besides providing the precursor for vitamin A which improves vision, the carrot fruit has long been known to play active roles in both preventing and fighting cancer. The carrot fruit is believed to be involved in preventing cancer of the lungs, mouth, throat, stomach, intestine, bladder prostate and breast.

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Anti-Cancer Diet: A Food Chemical that Makes the Avocado Fruit a Healthy Thing to Eat

Another cancer-fighting food that should be added to our supplement of our daily anti-cancer diet is the avocado fruit (Persea americana). The avocado fruit has been classified as one f the many healthy things to eat by nutritionists because of its uniqueness as a food that is vital in both preventing and fighting cancer. The avocado fruit, also known as the alligator pear, is a food laced with high calorie content and contains lots of vitamins beneficial to health. As an anti-cancer diet, it is taunted as, maybe, nature’s highest achievement. This is because every serving of the creamy, delicious avocadocontains 20 food chemicals in form of vitamins and nutrients that have been found anti-cancer properties. There are many food chemicals present in the avocado fruit that have anti-cancer activity on human cells but one of them are worth mentioning in this article (more to come later). This important food chemical, found in the avocado fruit happens to be Glutathione.

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Monoterpenes: food chemical that makes the grapefruit an anti-cancer diet

The grapefruit (citrus paradisi) is one of the many food supplements that can be added to our list of daily anti-cancer diet. It also one of the healthy things to eat as suggested by nutritionists. The grape fruit is a member of the famous Citrus family which includes orange, lemon, lime and tangerine. The citrus fruit family are believed to contain food chemicals which research studies have shown to have anti-cancer activities in both preventing and fighting cancer. Some of these food chemicals found in the grapefruit (which is also synonymous with other citrus fruit family members) which gives it its anti-cancer properties include:

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