One more reason to eat your broccoli. Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley looked at the effects of broccoli on human breast cancer cells and found what appears to be it’s cancer fighting ingredient. According to the study, compounds in broccoli called indoles are digested and broken down in the stomach to a compound called 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM). It seems that this compound may be the key to keeping cancer at bay. The study determined that DIM appears to prevent malignant cells from dividing and multiplying, thereby preventing the spread of cancer. DIM also promotes the death of tumor cells by increasing levels of a protein that kills cells, and lowering levels of another protein that keeps cells alive. Tumor cells often have higher levels of this life-sustaining protein. According to the results, tumor cells treated with DIM contained more of the death-promoting protein and less of the life-sustaining protein.
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