Contrary
to popular internet rumor, asparagus is not a miracle cancer cure. Like most
fruits and vegetables, asparagus does offer a plethora of health benefits,
including delivering some vitamins and minerals effective in cancer prevention.
Ingesting massive doses of asparagus to fight cancer will most likely give you
foul smelling urine and it also has some potential for feeding certain
cancers.
The Good News
A study published in The Journal of the American Medical
Association in 2010 found that vitamin B6 when combined with folate and
methionine can reduce the chances of lung cancer by as much as two-thirds.
Asparagus contains both vitamin B and folate. (Methionine, an amino acid, can be
obtained from meat, poultry, fish, cottage cheese, peanuts beans, eggs, garlic,
lentils, onions, yogurt and sesame seeds).
In 2009, researchers in
Nanjing, China identified a compound called Asparanin A in asparagus. The
researchers found that Asparanin A arrests the growth liver cancer cells and can
even cause death in those cells.
Asparagus is the best food source of the
anti-oxidant glutathione, a substance researchers at the Institute for Cancer
Prevention have identified as effective in warding off cancer. Glutathione is
also believed to have anti-viral properties.
Research has shown that
chronic, excessive inflammation and chronic oxidative stress heighten the risk
for many types of cancers. Since asparagus contains many nutrients, including
saponins, which have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory property, it deserves
a place in a healthy diet, along with other vegetables and fruits. The
anti-inflammatory nutrients in asparagus make it an excellent dietary choice for
people trying to combat diseases such as arthritis and rheumatism. It can also
help prevent varicose veins.
Asparagus benefits the body in many other
ways. Ayurvedic healing refers to asparagus as "shatavari" which means "women
with a thousand husbands." Ayurvedic experts have used shatavari for centuries
to treat the symptoms of menopause as well as infertility and loss of
libido.
The Bad News
Asparagus contains an amino acid called asparagine. Normal
cells generally manufacture this substance, but leukemia cells often cannot and
must obtain their supply from adjacent normal cells. If starved of asparagine,
leukemia cells die. Elgar, a pharmaceutical prescribed for patients with acute
lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), contains an enzyme, L-asparaginase, which destroys
circulating asparagine in order to starve leukemia cells. The American
Association of Naturopathic Physicians states "Eating asparagus would seem ill
advised for people who have cancers that respond to l-asparaginase."
Conclusions
The popular health myth of asparagus as a magical remedy for
cancer is unfounded; the prescriptions which accompany that myth for ingesting
massive quantities of this vegetable will likely not have the desired effect.
Recommendations which rely solely on one food as a supposed miracle cure are
based on a mistaken allopathic "magic bullet" concept to the alternative health
model.
Alternative health is about balance, not about one single herb,
vegetable or fruit with extraordinary properties. Take with a grain of full
spectrum salt any health advice which sounds suspiciously like it came from the
Lord of the Rings.
Nature offers an abundance of healthy choices for
creating health and these foods work in combination with each other, and with a
healthy lifestyle. Eating reasonable amounts of asparagus, as part a diet which
includes many different fruits and vegetables, will help protect you against
cancer, as well as help strengthen the body in other ways.
Certain foods
are not advisable for some people, who have allergies and food sensitivities. In
the case of those few cancers, such as ALL, which respond to l-asparaginase,
asparagus may be a food to limit in your diet.
Sources:http://www.naturalnews.com/032074_a...http://www.naturalnews.com/023368_a...http://www.naturalnews.com/029203_l...http://www.goodhealthwellnessblog.c...http://www.cancerdecisions.com/cont...http://physicianswholisten.blogspot...http://www.rvita.com/index.php?opti...
