John Robbins
See book keywords and concepts |
 The human body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A.
It was, it seemed, compelling and inspiring evidence that genetically . engineered crops could help reduce malnutrition. Time quoted Jimmy Carter, reminding everyone what was at stake. "Responsible biotechnology," said the former president, "is not the enemy, starvation is."
But in all the excitement about golden rice, several facts seemed to escape attention. One was that we have no assurance, yet, that the genetically engineered strain will grow in the kinds of soil that it must to be of value to the world's hungry. |
Marion Nestle
See book keywords and concepts |
 Green peppers are especially high in beta-carotene and vitamin C, for example, and dairy products are especially high in calcium. Some nutrients are found only in certain food groups: Vitamin C derives only from foods of plant origin, and vitamin B derives only from foods of animal origin (this vitamin is synthesized by common bacteria present in foods consumed by animals). For these reasons alone, the human diet should contain sufficient amounts of a wide variety of foods to provide the full range of needed nutrients. |
Robyn Landis
See book keywords and concepts |
 The body turns carotenes into vitamin A, but the carotenes themselves provide a different antioxidant effect than vitamin A. beta-carotene, which is probably the most commonly talked-about carotenoid, is just one kind. There are many kinds of carotenoids, such as lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which are also considered to be antioxidants. |
Ruth Winter
See book keywords and concepts |
 CAROTENE • Provitamin A. beta-carotene. Found in all plants and many animal tissues, it is the chief yellow coloring matter of carrots, butter, and egg yolk. Extracted as red crystals or crystalline powder, it is used as a vegetable dye in butter, margarine, shortening, skimmed milk, buttermilk, and cottage cheese. It is also used to manufacture vitamin A and is a nutrient added to skimmed milk, vegetable shortening, and margarine at the rate of 5,000 to 13,000 IU per pound. Insoluble in water, acids, and alkalies. |
Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine
See book keywords and concepts |
 This plant is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, such as vitamins E, C, and K, beta-carotene, glutathione, and psoralens. Psoralens are naturally occurring tricyclic furocoumarins that act as antioxidants and are found in other plants such as celery, parsley, parsnips, and figs.
Eat cooked greens such as kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and broccoli rabe. Learn to love the taste of bitter greens because they detoxify the liver. Of the wild greens, dandelion and nettles are both delicious sauteed with garlic. |
Ruth Winter
See book keywords and concepts |
| Fat-soluble antioxidants, beta-carotene and other carotenoids, as well as vitamins C and E and pycnogenol (see), are believed to fight the damage from free radicals.
FRESH • A food that has not been heat processed or frozen and supposedly contains no preservatives.
FRUCTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES (FOS) • Sugars that occur naturally in plants such as tomatoes, onions, and bananas. They are not digestible in the stomach and travel unabsorbed to the intestine. In the intestines they promote the growth of beneficial bacteria such as those used to culture yogurt. |
John Boik
See book keywords and concepts |
 These include the enzymes mentioned above (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase); nonessential antioxidants, such as glutathione, proteins, and uric acid; and essential radical scavengers such as vitamins C, A, E, and beta-carotene (Gey, 1993). For example, macrophages and neutrophils arc types of immune cell that destroy foreign microbes by producing a respirator}' burst of hydrogen peroxide and free radicals. To prevent self-inflicted damage, macrophages contain high amounts of vitamin C.
Antioxidant defenses are not perfect and DNA is damaged regularly. Ames et al. |
Ruth Winter
See book keywords and concepts |
| It is a benign condition, and withdrawal of carotene from the diet cures it. beta-carotene has less serious side effects than vitamin A and was given to 22,000 physicians as part of a five-year study to determine whether aspirin could protect against heart disease and beta carotene against tumors. It is nontoxic. The FAO-WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives concluded that there was no objection to the use of vegetable extracts as coloring agents provided the level of use did not exceed the level normally present in vegetables. |
Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
 The present recommendation is not to look at isolated beta-carotene as the effective supplement but at a carotenoid mix. Additionally, startling evidence is at hand showing decisive benefits from another antioxidant, vitamin E, even when it is used as an isolated supplement. Recent studies have shown that vitamin E in supplements can reduce heart disease recurrence in patients who have already suffered a heart attack by as much as 75 percent.
Some scientists have also questioned the value of common recommendations for vitamin C supplementation. A recent government-sponsored study by Dr. |
John Heinerman
See book keywords and concepts |
 Carrots contain high amounts of the anti-cancer nutrient, beta-carotene. Scientific documentation has shown that this root vegetable really does help to keep the incidence of cancer down in those who consume it regularly versus those who seldom ever include it in their diets. For instance, the December 1986 issue of Epidemiology noted that pancreatic cancer risks are substantially higher in those who consume fried and grilled meat and margarine, but significantly reduced with almost daily consumption of carrots and citrus fruits. |
Committee on Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer, Assembly of Life Sciences National Research Council
See book keywords and concepts |
 Can dietary beta-carotene materially reduce human cancer rates? Nature 290:201-208.
Pitot, H. C, and A. E. Sirica. 1980. The stages of initiation and promotion in hepatocarcinogenesis. Biochim. Blophys. Acta 605:191-215.
Reddy, B. S., and N. Hirota. 1979. Effect of dietary ascorbic acid on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer in rats. Fed. Proc. Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol. 38:714. Abstract 2565.
Rivlin, R. S. 1973. Riboflavin and cancer: A review. Cancer Res. 33:1977-1986.
Rogers, A. E. 1977. |
Sheldon Saul Hendler
See book keywords and concepts |
 These are sold as supplementary sources of beta-carotene and chlorophyll. For the reasons previously stated, those with SLE should not take either supplementary alfalfa or consume alfalfa sprouts on a regular basis. Those who are allergic to grass pollens are unlikely to be sensitive to alfalfa (unless they are specifically allergic to it) since alfalfa is not a member of the grass family. There is no evidence that alfalfa can help with allergy problems. |
Marion Nestle
See book keywords and concepts |
| They compared the effects of a high-dose beta-carotene supplement against those of a placebo in men who smoked cigarettes. To their dismay, the men who took the supplements had more lung cancers than those who took placebos.13 Although the supplement industry argued that the results applied only to people who smoked cigarettes, most observers interpreted the trial results as confirming the potential hazards of consuming single nutrients in high doses. The results also were interpreted as demonstrating the health advantages of consuming foods—not supplements. |
C. P. Khare
See book keywords and concepts |
 Vitamin Bi 80 mcg/100 g (of fresh plant, in another sample).
Plant contains flavonoids (0.7-1.8 %); gluco-quinones; tannins; silicic acid (1-4 %); volatile oil (ketones including 2-methylhept-2-en-6-on); and a high content of potassium ions.
Research has indicated that nettles increase the excretion of uric acid from the body. Nettle gives encouraging results in the treatment of arthritic conditions and gout. The tannins account for astringent effect. The glucoquinone exhibited hypoglycaemic action in animals. |
Thomas J. Moore
See book keywords and concepts |
 The National Cancer Institute halted its own clinical trial of beta-carotene among high-risk smokers because of excess deaths among those treated. It also terminated a study among 10,000 doctors, finding neither harm nor benefit. In the doctors trial, the benefits or harm was so small that they were not apparent in this large but healthy group after ten years of continuous observation.
In this instance, randomized clinical trials saved the public and the health establishment from making a gross mistake. |
| Beta-carotene is a vitamin and not subject to the strict controls applied to the potentially more dangerous prescription drugs. But the issues and the results were the same.
This leads to one of the central lessons of this chapter: Establishing the tangible health benefits of drugs protects the public from major dangers that no one anticipated or expected. And some doctors and patients still embrace drugs based on testimonials rather than evidence. |
| However, testing beta-carotene raised even more practical problems than testing Pravachol. Since cancer is a rarer event than a heart attack, it meant recruiting not merely thousands but tens of thousands of participants and observing them for five to eight years. Even then, given the small expected benefit, researchers had to limit the experiment to the highest-risk cancer population they could find: male cigarette smokers. Although the expected benefits were going to be quite small, a carefully designed, well-controlled trial would finally established that such benefits in fact existed. |
Natural Prescriptions: Dr. Giller's Natural Treatments & Vitamin Therapies For Over 100 Common AilmentsRobert M. Giller, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| If your formulation does not fall within these ranges, I recommend that in addition to your daily vitamin/mineral supplement, you take the following antioxidants:
500 mg. of vitamin C 200 I.U. of vitamin E 10,000 I.U. of beta-carotene 50 micrograms of selenium
You can buy these supplements separately or you can buy an "antioxidant" formula that should contain these nutrients. Remember that the "antioxidant formula supplements should be taken in addition to your daily vitamin/mineral supplement, not instead of it. |
| The antioxidants include beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and selenium. These chemicals fight the disease and aging processes by acting to absorb the free radicals—waste products of cell metabolism— that act to harm a cell's fragile genetic material. Antioxidants fight cancer, prevent cholesterol from becoming the sticky stuff that clogs arteries, protect against pollutants, and generally enhance our immune responses. |
| Vitamin E in doses greater than 100 mg. daily was associated with a 36 percent lower risk of heart attack than when the amount taken was less than 30 mg. a day.
These are just a tiny sampling of the reports that flood my desk concerning the importance of vitamin and mineral supplementation.
The most exciting recent news about vitamins has concerned the antioxidants. The antioxidants include beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and selenium. |
Robyn Landis
See book keywords and concepts |
| Antioxidant vitamins (A, C, E, and beta-carotene) will help reduce oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
• The Ayurvedic herb guggul (also called guggul gum or guggula), can be bought in capsules or as a powder to make capsules; it is extremely effective at lowering serum cholesterol.
• The B vitamin folic acid (400 milligrams daily) reduces levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that can injure blood vessels when it appears in very high levels in the blood, causing hardening of the arteries.
• To increase circulation, take ginkgo. |
Natural Prescriptions: Dr. Giller's Natural Treatments & Vitamin Therapies For Over 100 Common AilmentsRobert M. Giller, M.D.
See book keywords and concepts |
| Beta-carotene strengthens the immune system and can help inhibit viruses. Both vitamin C and zinc are helpful in inhibiting herpes attacks. And vitamin E has been shown to be helpful in relieving the pain of the herpes outbreak and also in shortening the duration of the attack.
In my experience, the most effective aid in the relief of herpes is the amino acid l-lysine. There is a hypothesis that lysine inhibits herpes activity (while another amino acid, arginine, promotes it). Studies have demonstrated lysine's usefulness. |
Ronald Klatz and Robert Goldman
See book keywords and concepts |
 First discovered over 150 years ago in the isolated orange pigment of carrots, beta-carotene has become one of the most powerful antioxidants on the market today, responsible for boosting immunity, preventing heart disease, and reducing our chances of cancer. It is also able to convert itself into vitamin A in the body, without displaying any of A's toxic side effects. |
C. P. Khare
See book keywords and concepts |
| The flowers also contained luteolin-7-O-glucoside, cholesterol, stigmasterol, beta-sitosterol and its beta-D-glucopyra-noside; polyacetylenes, mixed esters of phytol, free fatty acids and hydrocarbons.
Green leaves (edible portion 66 %) contained moisture 91.1, protein 2.5, fat 0.6, carbohydrates 4.5 and minerals 1.3 g/100 g.
Analysis of the seeds gave moisture 5.5, protein 13.5, carbohydrates 17.9, fibre 34.9 and minerals 2.68 g/100 g.
The seed lowers blood serum cholesterol; also possesses purgative and diuretic properties. |
Ralph W. Moss PhD
See book keywords and concepts |
 Vegetables juices are also very helpful, he said, especially carrot juice, again recalling recent work on beta-carotene.
Arctium lapi (burdock)
Kloss's Primary Anticancer Herbs:
Scientific name
Common name
Part
AHPA
Trifolium pratense
Red clover
Blossoms
2b
Arctium lappa
Burdock
Root
1
Rumex crispus
Yellow dock
Root
2d
Viola spp.
Blue violet
Whole plant
1
Hydrastis canadensis
Goldenseal
Root
2b
Taraxicum officinale
Dandelion
Root
1
Helianthemum canadense
Rock rose
Leaves/plant
—
Note: Plants on this list should only be used under a physician's direction. |
Donald R. Yance, j r.,C.N., M.H., A.H.G., with Arlene Valentine
See book keywords and concepts |
| When the body is fighting an illness, is under stress, or is simply aging, it loses its ability to manufacture its own mycelles, the basic unit of absorption for vitamins A, D, E, and K, beta-carotene, essential fatty acids, and lecithin. Mycellization is a natural process of manufacturing water-soluble fat for easy absorption. |
| A combination of beta-carotene, vitamin E, and selenium reduced the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases in a National Cancer Institute-sponsored study in Linxian, China. Of the nearly thirty thousand men and women ages forty to sixty-nine who took part in the study, those who took this combination over five years had a 13 percent reduction in cancer death rate and a 9 percent reduction in total death. "This is a hopeful sign that vitamins and minerals may help prevent the onset of cancer in healthy individuals," said William J. |
| Spirulina's pure protein, which arrives within the context of massive amounts of beta-carotene, chlorophyll, fatty-acid GLA, and other nutrients, is especially helpful to those who have eaten too many animal products and refined foods—usually those who are overweight, diabetic, hypoglycemic, or suffering from cancer, arthritis, or other degenerative diseases.
Spirulina contains the blue pigment phycocyanin, a biliprotein that has been shown to inhibit cancer colony formation. |
| Olestra, when traveling through the body, takes with it the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and it also reduces circulating levels of carotenoids, including beta-carotene and lycopene. As little as six potato chips containing 3 grams of Olestra can reduce the absorption of carotenoids by 38 percent.
Avoid canned foods. They are inferior to fresh in everyway, including taste. Canned foods lack many important nutrients, and a significant percentage of cans (as high as 85 percent) are lined with a plastic coating. |
| Examples of this type of carotenoid, such as beta-carotene and the recently popular lycopene found abundantly in tomatoes, are typically orange/red in color.
The other type of carotenoid, called xanthophyll, has no provitamin A conversion abilities. Xanthophyll-rich carotenoids are primarily yellow in color and include many flowers, such as calendula, as well as the spice saffron. The color changes we see in ripening fruit or the leaves turning in the fall is the result of carotenoid pigments emerging after being masked by green chlorophyll pigments. |
Email this page to a friend
