Uncovering the root (veg) of good health

Food scientists, chemists and clinicians will joins forces to investigate the effects of eating carrots, parsnips and celeriac on biomarkers for cancer and inflammatory diseases. A three year project will focus on a group of compounds called polyacetylenes. These natural plant chemicals protect the plant from attack and only occur in vegetables of the carrots family, plus a few other closely related species like ginseng. Previous work has suggested that polyacetylenes have beneficial effects of cell culture models of inflammation and cancer. They also reduced cancer growth in rat models. Now the team from Newcastle University are recruiting more than 20 volunteers to take part in a dietary trial with 6-10 week test periods. “After seeing the positive effects of feeding carrots in the animal experiments, it is important to test if it also works in humans, in particular to find out how much carrot we must eat to obtain a health benefit,” said Dr Kirsten Brandt, senior lecture in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural development and project supervisor. To do this, the team, led by PhD student Sarah Warner, will look at biomarkers in the blood. “Biomarkers can be used to assess how well the body’s cells are functioning and thus indicate the risk that a person will develop a disease in the future,” said Brandt. Dr Wendy Wrieden from the Human Nutrition Research Centre at the University said: “Currently average consumption of vegetables and fruit is considerably below recommendations. We know that eating a variety of vegetables and fruit can reduce the risk of some cancers and other chronic disease. Hopefully this work will give us a clearer picture of the role of vegetables and perhaps provide encouragement to the public to eat more.” First, the team will investigate the effect of cooking on the bioavailabilty – how much of the polyacetylenes are absorbed by the body when the vegetables are eaten. The vegetables will be prepared in different ways – raw, boiled or fried – and in large and small pieces. The water or oil the vegetables are cooked in will also be tested to see if there is any health benefit to reusing it in stews and soups.