[LifeStyle] What is the “dark matter” in food and why it can help prevent cancer

[S e u o n g]

 

"Garlic is good for your health."

This is a phrase that has been said for hundreds of years and that you have surely heard. However, much more recent is the understanding by science of how garlic is good for health. To do this, it was necessary to decipher its chemical composition.

The compound allicin, for example, inhibits the proliferation of cells that spread colon cancer and is also responsible for the aroma of freshly grated garlic. Luteolin, on the other hand, has properties that help prevent cancer and heart disease, according to some studies.

In every food we eat there are tens of thousands of other biochemical structures whose characteristics and potential need to be explored.

 

We are used to hearing about proteins, sugar, fats, calories, vitamins, but approximately 99% of what our food makes up is practically unknown.

 

The vastness to be explored in the set of nutritional factors has been compared to the "dark matter" of the universe, the invisible and little-known substance that permeates space and represents 80% of all matter in the cosmos.

The term appeared linked to the food context at the end of 2019, in an article published in the scientific journal Nature, signed by scientists Albert-László Barabási, Giulia Menichetti and Joseph Loscalzo, from the universities of Harvard and Northeastern, in the United States.

At the time, the survey cited 26,625 food items cataloged in the largest database of its kind in the world, Canada's FooDB.

Today that number is 70,926, and with each discovery the list expands. But the work of the three scientists now includes banks other than FooDB, and their record already exceeds an astronomical 135,000 nutritional components.

Only a small fraction (there were 150 in 2019) of this total already has established information such as chemical concentration and its effects.

 

Scientist and study co-author Giulia Menichetti told BBC News Brazil that new discoveries will allow us to understand how the interaction between chemical compounds in food and proteins occurs in the human body.

It shows promise for more effective treatments and prevention programs against diseases like cancer.

And with a much broader catalog of nutrition information, "it will also be possible to help public health agencies simulate food substitution scenarios," she says.

 

Eating patterns
And as the study by Imperial College London points out, there are particularities of the organism and lifestyle of each individual.

This myriad of factors may explain the doubts raised by both the scientific community and the general po[CENSORED]tion about food research: studies that argue, for example, that "the egg is healthy" one day, and others that conclude the following week that its daily consumption can lead to the risk of shortening someone's life.

"This idea of identifying a certain food associated with a certain disease is an almost impossible mission," says Carlos Augusto Monteiro, professor at the School of Public Health of the University of Sao Paulo and coordinator of the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health ( NUPENS / USP).

Therefore, a current line of research in the science of nutrition is to identify eating patterns that favor or harm health.

"Now there is interest in studying eating patterns, because they influence the development of a disease. In a relationship between food and disease, it is very difficult to isolate a specific element. People do not choose food one by one, it is a block, "explains Monteiro.

"In a feijoada, for example, you are eating beans, meat, the fat of the preparation, garlic, onion. You cannot separate one thing from the other."

The USP professor leads a large study that aims to accompany 200,000 people in Brazil for a minimum period of 10 years. Your eating patterns will be analyzed in association with the risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases (diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity and various types of cancer).

Another similar survey, conducted with 100,000 participants between 2009 and 2017 by the University of Paris, and with a contribution from USP, demonstrated the relationship between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and the diseases that affect a large group of people.

 

Modern life
For Andrea Pereira, nutritionist in the area of Oncology at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein and author of the recently published book "Balance diet - The best anti-cancer diet", "science knows that vegetables, legumes and fruits have many antioxidant factors and this will lead to a greater protection of the organism and the improvement of the immune system ".

He explains that "every day cells divide in the wrong way, but not everyone will get cancer. Because the immune system protects you. But a compromised immune system will not work and that is associated with a poor diet, with low fruit intake ".

 

 

Link: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-59388361