A Carrot A Day...
Carrots may reduce cancer risk
A team of researchers from the University of Newcastle have found a compound in carrots that may reduce the risk of developing cancer.
The team discovered that the natural pesticide Falcarinol reduced the risk of rats developing cancer by a third. Tests were carried out on 24 rats with pre-cancerous tumours. Researchers divided them into 3 groups and fed them different diets. After 18 weeks, rats who ate carrots along with their ordinary feed and the group which were given feed with a Falcarinol supplement, were one third less likely to develop full scale tumours than rats in the test group who were given just ordinary feed.
The experiments were carried out using raw carrots and the team do not yet know if eating boiled carrot or carrot juice would have the same effect. Dr Brandt, from the team, recommends eating one small raw carrot a day along with other vegatables and fruit. Falcarinol is toxic in large quantities but to obtain a lethal dose you would have to eat 400kg of carrots at once.
Full details are published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Submitted by: Sarah McLeod, 10 February 2005
