by Paul Fassa
Health Impact News

It’s well known among health conscious consumers and holistic health practitioners that broccoli and other related cruciferous vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, garden cress, bok choy, and brussels sprouts offer antioxidant protection against developing cancer.

Micro-nutrients that protect against cancer, known as isothiocyanates, are high in broccoli. The most powerful isothiocyanate tumor stifling ingredient recently isolated from broccoli is known as sulforaphane. But the amount of broccoli needed to protect against cancer is beyond the comfort zone of most modern folks.

And the fact that so few are raw vegans puts broccoli into various types of cookware. Cooking destroys many enzymes in veggies that are needed to metabolize whatever macro and micro nutrients are available with raw vegetables.

However a powerful solution exists with broccoli sprouts. The sprouts are more nutrient dense and contain up to 50 times or more of the amount of sulforaphane than normal broccoli.

More importantly, sprouts are eaten raw with other foods, which keeps their vital enzymes intact. [1]

Sandwiches of all types, scrambled eggs, soups, and salads are enjoyed even more by adding crunchy broccoli sprouts, which are as tasty as popular alfalfa sprouts. It doesn’t get any easier or tastier than that to increase one’s cancer fighting food intake.

The Research and Legal Saga of Broccoli Sprouts

There have been several studies that confirm not only broccoli sprouts’ ability to resist cancer tumors from forming, but also to resist heart failure, high blood pressure (hypertension), stomach ulcers, asthma, and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Perhaps the most profoundly famous and notoriously infamous study was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. It was profound because they isolated previously unknown powerful anti-cancer properties of broccoli sprouts.

It was notoriously infamous because they tried to patent broccoli sprout seeds for monetary gain. The problem was they didn’t genetically modify the seed or even create a hybrid.

After the Johns Hopkins broccoli sprout studies, which had started around 1992, one of the researchers, Dr. Paul Talalay, formed the corporation Brassica Protection Products (BPP) to “…exploit the financial benefits of my findings.” [2]

In 1999, BPP had registered three patents that enabled them to obtain licensing fees from commercial broccoli seed and sprout providers and linked itself to the Sholl Group of Minnetonka, MN, a subsidiary of Green Giant Fresh Inc.

That association gave BPP the financial wherewithal to use the legal system against non-fee paying broccoli sprout and seed growers, causing one grower to settle out of court and go out of business.

Five providers that didn’t pay the expensive licensing fees were sued by BPP in 2000 and took the matter to court.

By 2001, the five growers who had been sued went to the U.S. Federal District Court of Maryland with the defense that questioned: “Can a plant long well known in nature and cultivated and eaten by humans for decades, be patented merely on the basis of recent realization that the plant has always had some heretofore unknown but naturally occurring beneficial feature?” [2]

Judge William A. Nickerson agreed that it couldn’t. He declared all three patents invalid. Ruling that phrases in BPP’s findings such as, “rich in glucosinolates,” or “containing high Phase 2 enzyme potential and non-toxic levels of indole glucosinolates and their breakdown products …” simply describe the inherent properties of certain cruciferous seeds. [2]

BPP and friends tried to appeal later and lost again.

But to Johns Hopkins’ Dr. Paul Talaly and his colleagues’ credit, several important and profound properties were revealed with their broccoli sprouts research. Further research has led to isolating and expanding glucosinolates, especially sulforaphane, for other purposes.

Sulforaphane nips cancer stem cells exclusively and without side effects, an activity that has eluded mainstream medical chemo researchers for sometime. [1]

Dr. Tallaly asserted, ”The sprouts are not only quantitatively different than mature broccoli in their concentrations of chemoprotectants [that protect against tumor formation], they are qualitatively different in their profiles.” He was referring to the different ratios of inherently good versus bad ingredients. [2]

For example: Sulforaphane activates phase II enzymes, which operate in cells to break down and eliminate noxious compounds before they do damage to the cell’s DNA and set the stage for cancer. Other inducers of phase II enzyme activity found in food ironically turn precancerous chemicals into carcinogens while broccoli sprouts do not. [3]

Commercial Broccoli Sprouts vs Home Sprouted Broccoli

There have been a few well publicized E. coli adverse events that reported a few deaths with commercially grown sprouts, both alfalfa and broccoli. The FDA even suggests cooking sprouts purchased from vendors.

Of course, the FDA is keen with killing nutrients to avoid possible contamination. Some sprout growers rinse the sprouts with chlorine, which isn’t healthy.

To avoid contamination, make sure your purchase is within the suggested purchase date. Inspect the package to ensure there is no moisture in the sprouts and that the roots are clean and white or cream colored. Rinse the sprouts with purified water before using each time.

Try to buy sprouts that have the International Sprout Growers Association (ISGA) seal. Avoid sprouts without green buds or dark, musky smelling buds. Using purchased sprouts within three days is also recommended.

But after investing a few bucks for some basic equipment, you can become a kitchen farmer and grow your own broccoli sprouts from organic seeds. You can buy a large glass container with a mesh stainless steel cap or simply use a large jar with a wide opening covered with cheesecloth.

Purchase your seeds from a store that sells quality sprouting seeds. Usually the packets contain instructions. Basically, two to three tablespoons of seeds should be placed into the jar, adding three times as much purified water that’s relatively chlorine and fluoride free.

Reverse osmosis/activated charcoal filtered water is available from machines at most grocery stores for 25 to 50 cents a gallon.

This is the simplest method for sprouting

1) Place the seed into the jar with three times the amount of purified water.
2) Let it sit for around six hours, then tip the jar carefully to avoid damaging seeds and sprouts to pour out the water. Rinse with fresh water and drain again.
3) Keep the jar propped at a downward angle to allow for more drainage. Keep away from heat and direct sunlight.
4) This is continued until the jar begins getting filled with fresh sprouts. Then strong indirect sunlight is encouraged.
5) After five days usually, broccoli sprouts are ready and should be refrigerated. Alfalfa sprouts take less time.

Once you get the hang of it, you may want to work with two jars, starting the second one toward or at the end of the first jar’s completion. This keeps you from running out and waiting for five days for the next batch.

The following video demonstration is more detailed, highlighting some important features that require attention.

Sources:

[1] http://expand-your-consciousness.com/broccoli-kills-cancer-cells-fast/?t=MAM

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/16/us/researchers-find-a-concentrated-anticancer-substance-in-broccoli-sprouts.html

[3] https://sproutpeople.org/sprout-politics/broccoli-sprout-saga/

[4] http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=113

We Lost the War on Cancer – Review of Alternative Cancer Therapies

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We have lost the war on cancer. At the beginning of the last century, one person in twenty would get cancer. In the 1940s it was one out of every sixteen people. In the 1970s it was one person out of ten. Today one person out of three gets cancer in the course of their life.

The cancer industry is probably the most prosperous business in the United States. In 2014, there will be an estimated 1,665,540 new cancer cases diagnosed and 585,720 cancer deaths in the US. $6 billion of tax-payer funds are cycled through various federal agencies for cancer research, such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI states that the medical costs of cancer care are $125 billion, with a projected 39 percent increase to $173 billion by 2020.

The simple fact is that the cancer industry employs too many people and produces too much income to allow a cure to be found. All of the current research on cancer drugs is based on the premise that the cancer market will grow, not shrink.

John Thomas explains to us why the current cancer industry prospers while treating cancer, but cannot afford to cure it in Part I. In Part II, he surveys the various alternative cancer therapies that have been proven effective, but that are not approved by the FDA.