Add a powerful cancer-fighting secret to your lunch

Heavy Hitter

When I think about watercress, which I admit is just about never, I think about dainty little finger sandwiches at a ladies’ tea. Yet, this humble salad green is proving to be a anything but dainty when it comes to fighting cancer.

It’s high time for watercress to shake off the reputation as a lightweight snack ingredient from the Victorian era.

Instead, think heavyweight…major heavyweight, because watercress delivers a powerful punch of excellent nutrients you need in abundance every day: calcium, vitamin C, folate, iron, lutein, beta-carotene, potassium, and phenylethyl isothiocyante.

Um…phen what what?

Please don’t feed the tumors

We’ll call it PEITC for short. Cruciferous vegetables such as watercress are rich in this chemical compound that inhibits the activation of a protein known as HIF. Cancer cells use HIF to create small blood vessels that feed tumors. So if you block HIF effectively, cancer cells can’t invade normal tissue.

In new research from the University of Southampton, several breast cancer survivors were asked to fast, then eat 80 grams of watercress (about enough to fill a cereal bowl). Blood was drawn from each subject before, during, and after the intervention.

Results showed a significant boost in blood levels of PEITC after eating watercress. Most importantly, the HIF function was “measurably affected.”

Now–hold those good thoughts while we look at another watercress study conducted several years ago at Ireland’s University of Ulster.

Sixty healthy adults ate 85 grams of raw watercress along with their regular daily diets. Before and after the eight week trial, researchers measured several biomarkers related to cancer risk.

Results: Antioxidant levels were significantly boosted. Triglycerides dropped by 10 percent. And DNA damage to white blood cells dropped by more than 20 percent.

That’s a world champion salad green right there.

How to eat it

While researching watercress today, I came across a tasty recipe for an egg salad and watercress sandwich.

It’s pretty basic. Make some egg salad however you like it (the recipe calls for mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, a little wine vinegar, and chopped chives). Put a generous bunch of watercress on the bread, spoon on the egg salad, and you’re done.

Use genuine whole grain bread and organic eggs, and you’ve got yourself one powerhouse of a nutritious, cancer- fighting sandwich.

Nothin’ dainty about that!

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson

Sources:
“Watercress May ‘Turn Off’ Breast Cancer Signal” Science Daily, 9/14/10, sciencedaily.com
“Watercress Supplementation in Diet Reduces Lymphocyte DNA Damage and Alters Blood Antioxidant Status in Healthy Adults” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 85, No. 2, February 2007, ajcn.org