Carrots May Cure Cancer

Haydn Fenton writes "A group of researchers from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England have discovered a link between the naturally formed pesticide found in carrots, falcarinol, and a substantial reduction in cancerous tumor formation in rats. The researchers hope that the discovery will lead to new anti-cancer drugs and new methods of production to maximize falcarinol production in crops. Dr Kirsten Brandt one of the researchers told the press "We already know that carrots are good for us and can reduce the risk of cancer but until now we have not known which element of the vegetable has these special properties."

Comments

Decisions decisions

[Dancin_Santa]

Food prepared in England or dying of cancer.

Both are horrible ways to go.

Making good carrots

[Profane MuthaFucka]

I hated carrots until about 4 months ago when I had them prepared PROPERLY.

Don't boil them, don't cook them too little. That's the secret.

Get a skillet, put a little oil in it. 1 teaspoon or so. Add 200 grams of carrots. Add a cup of water. Cook the carrots on high heat until the water is gone. If the carrots aren't soft, add more water. When the carrots are soft, keep cooking them. The goal is to brown the sides of the carrots. Turn them over when they are brown on one side, and cook some more. Total cooking time is maybe 20 minutes on relatively high heat. Olive oil is good but you need to watch it because it can't take as much heat. It's important to cook them enough. 20 minutes AT LEAST. Not enough cooking makes carroty carrots. If you like carroty carrots, feel free. If you don't, keep on cooking.

When they are cooked that way, the carrots don't taste so carroty, but actually become sweet. They are absolutely delicious like that, and you'll never go back to plain old steamed carrots.

Yummmay!

Re:Making good carrots

[famebait]

Another good one which differs more from the steamed ones more than you'd think:

Heat butter or olive oil or a mixture in a thick-bottomed pan, and chop carrots into wheels (or whatever size pieces you want), adding them into the fat as you go along.
Let them fry a little in the fat whole you chop some onion coarsely, and add that too. Let fry a little more. Then add some green peas.

The frying is just to cut cooking time, btw; you can dump it all in at once, but it will need to cook lonmger.

Add only a little water (ebough to keep the bottom moist and from burning for a while, but you should nowhere near enough to see it initially). Season with salt, pepper, and optional herbs of choice.

Cover and cook gently for at least 20 minutes. Sounds dead boring, but is a really nice side-dish.

Re:Making good carrots

[Teppy]

This is one of my favorite recipes: Begin by chopping three medium sized carrots into slivers.Sautee them as you suggest, but with some good quality butter, rather than olive oil. Add two cups of heavy cream and reduce until the cream thickens. Fry up a pound of bacon and chop into small pieces. Toss with some bread crumbs to firm this all up. Reserve the rendered bacon fat.

Form the above mixture into small patties. Coat in a beer batter and deep-fry. Use the reserved bacon fat, along with the yolks of 6 eggs to make a bacon fat hollendaise. Cover the patties in hollendaise sauce, and serve, accompanied by milkshakes.

I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was to discover that carrots are considered healthy.

Actual research abstract/paper

[FleaPlus]

Here are links to the actual research abstract and paper.

Abstract text:

Inhibitory Effects of Feeding with Carrots or (-)-Falcarinol on Development of Azoxymethane-Induced Preneoplastic Lesions in the Rat Colon

Morten Kobæk-Larsen, Lars P. Christensen, Werner Vach, Jelmera Ritskes-Hoitinga, and Kirsten Brandt

The effects of intake of dietary amounts of carrot or corresponding amounts of (-)-(3R)-falcarinol from carrots on development of azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon preneoplastic lesions were examined in male BDIX rats. Three groups of eight AOM-treated rats were fed the standard rat feed Altromin supplemented with either 10% (w/w) freeze-dried carrots with a natural content of 35 g falcarinol/g, 10% maize starch to which was added 35 g falcarinol/g purified from carrots, or 10% maize starch (control). After 18 weeks, the animals were euthanized and the colon was examined for tumors and aberrant crypt foci (ACF), which were classified into four size classes. Although the number of small ACF was unaffected by the feeding treatments, the numbers of lesions as a function of increasing size class decreased significantly in the rats that received one of the two experimental treatments, as compared with the control treatment. This indicates that the dietary treatments with carrot and falcarinol delayed or retarded the development of large ACF and tumors. The present study provides a new perspective on the known epidemiological associations between high intake of carrots and reduced incidence of cancers.