The Benefits of Broccoli

Dr. Jim Applegate joins us to discuss how eating more broccoli can help lower certain cancer risks. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well here it is broccoli on trial, the Salem broccoli trial.
This is West Michigan's Morning. Was it forty one or
forty three that hated brocoli?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Forty one?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
So first, George Herbert Walker Bush, this is West Michigan's
Morning News. Joining us on the liveline as we look
at broccoli and colon cancer. Doctor Jim Applegate, former Family
Physician of the Year in the State of Michigan.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
So what do we know.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
About this stuff? My sister in law calls it nature's
broom and I think that's cute, but good, bad, indifferent.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well, so what we're looking at is colon cancer, and
this is another study that goes to look at how
to prevent colon cancer. And remember colling cancer, though we
don't like to talk about it, it's the third most common
cancer that we have and the number of cases, especially
in populations below the age of fifty, is rising, which

(00:56):
is surprising to us. So if you know are worried
about it, you need to talk to your family doctor
about it. If you certainly have a family history of
colon cancer, you need to talk to your family doctor
about that and think about getting that wonderful colonoscopy that
we all dread normally when we get to be fifty.
But this is a study that looks at not just

(01:20):
broccoli broccoli in particular, but really all the forms of
vegetables broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, and it's a
study that shows that, you know, two servings a day
or two half cuff servings a day can actually lower
your rate of colon cancer compared to not having those

(01:40):
types of vegetables in your diet.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
So it's the fiber that's the difference.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
That Well, there are two things we think about. So
one of the things to help prevent colon cancer that
we talk about is we need a lot of fiber
in a diet. We need to poop much more than
we do currently. There are other things that sort of
may affect it. There's obesity. You know, we're eating a
lot more processed food that can lay to an increased

(02:07):
risk of colon cancer our sedentary lifestyle. But the bottom
line is we need to prove more and that's where
the fiber comes in. But there are also a set
of chemicals in this class of vegetables called phytochemicals, and
they seem to fight off cancer. They seem to lower
your risk of cancer just independently of the fiber themselves.
So although tablets are good and I recommend people do that,

(02:31):
eating these vegetables also gives you another way to prevent
it because of those phytochemicals that exist in those vegetables.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Hey, doc, is there a good serving size on the
broccoli like I tend to go two to three heads
for dinner at a night, or is it just any
kind of broccoli can get into your digestive system is good?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Well, I think any kid that will eat broccoli, you're
you're a head of the game. But we normally say it,
we use it sort of half cup serving of cooked
vegetables is what we normally recommend, and that should be
enough to get the phyto chemicals in now fyto chemicals
exist throughout the whole broccoli, not just in the head,

(03:12):
not just in the sort of the broom part of it,
as somebody would say, but in the whole broccoli. So
if you cut it all up and you cook it
about a half cup per person twice a day of
any of those vegetables, you know it can be bruffel
spouts if you like those it can be kale. Any
of those will lower your risk of colon cancer because

(03:32):
of again the fiber and the phyto chemicals.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
And you don't undo it if you put something like
cheese sauce on.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
It, well it depends, you know, we don't like you
to eat really a high processed foosion if it's probably
commercially available cheese sauce, if you make it yourself, I
wouldn't have any problem with that. I'd be all in.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Give us a minute on detection. On other ways. I
mean you said fifty right, if you have a family history,
you should be getting colonoscould be earlier. Give us recommendations.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Again. So there are basically three ways to look at this.
One is the classic colonoscapy and everyone should have a
colon ask to be you know, by age fifty or
at age fifty. There are those colon guard tests that
you see advertised where, for lack of a better term,
you're poop in a box and you send it off
and they look for some DNA samples in there. We

(04:25):
can also look for blood in your stools and that's
called a heemo cult, which may indicate that you have
a little pole up in there. That's bleeding. What normally
happens is you get a little a little pole up
that develops and then that grows and grows and grows
into it into a colon cancer. So that's what we
want to find, not that we ever really want to
find it, but if we find it early, if we

(04:46):
find it when it's in the polyp stage, then we
can prevent you from having colon cancer. So you know,
I know it's not a great test, it's not a
great prep because they make your poopy rains out, they
make you empty your entire colon, but it's it's really important. This,
like a mammogram, is really preventable. If you get a
mammogram every year. If we find colon cancer, or if

(05:07):
we find breast cancer, we can get rid of it.
While it's sortially the same thing with colon cancer. If
we find a little polyp in there, we can get
that polyp out there and you won't get colon cancer.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
As doctor Jim Applegate, always great information. Thank you.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I'm go green