It’s true! Savvy scientists have come up with positive proof to back up what your dear old mom knew all along – a little broccoli every day will keep the doctor away!
I thought I’d start this post out like a supermarket tabloid story, with the sort of splashy headline you see while languishing in an otherwise boring checkout line. A stunning new medical miracle, according to the teaser.
But like a lot of some a few tabloid stories, this one has a kernel of truth. Writing in the professional journal Molecular Cancer, researchers discovered that a chemical in broccoli, called sulforaphane, interacts with cells lacking an essential gene (PTEN) that reduces the chances of prostate cancer developing.
Richard Mithen, from the Institute of Food Research, concluded: “PTEN is a tumour suppressor gene, the deletion or inactivation of which can initiate prostate carcinogenesis, and enhance the probability of cancer progression. We’ve shown here that sulforaphane has different effects depending on whether the PTEN gene is present.”
In cells that already express PTEN, eating broccoli isn’t going to do you much good. But if PTEN is lacking in those prostate cells — and who knows if it is or isn’t — eating broccoli regularly could make the difference between a healthy life and putting your urologist on your Christmas card list.
The good thing about these miracle foods is that you don’t have much to lose by giving them a try, unlike some experimental drugs that turn out to have fairly wretched side effects years later.
You will probably never see, for example, a commercial on late-night TV featuring a non-lawyer spokesman who says: “Did you or a loved one eat broccoli between 2002 and 2010? If so, you may be entitled to compensation. Call right now for more information! Operators are standing by ….”
So, why not rush right out to your produce market and pick up a bundle of broccoli? Try it today!
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Another chapter in the long-running sage of the Uncivilized Society: Social science researchers have come up with a theory that the more compensation top corporate execs receive, the nastier they may be to their employees.
The authors of the study, from Harvard University, the University of Utah and Rice University, write: “Specifically, we claim that higher income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in executives perceiving themselves as being all-powerful and this perception of power leads them to maltreat rank and file workers. We present findings from two studies – an archival study and a laboratory experiment – that show that increasing executive compensation results in executives behaving meanly toward those lower down the hierarchy.”
This theory has been dubbed “Trickle Down Meanness” by blogger Maxine Udall (girl economist). Check out her July 23 post for details.
Who is Maxine Udall? In her profile, she explains: “I confused moral philosophy with economics and got a PhD in economics. Oops!”
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanko/466686/
