Lecturer Gail Rees on TV talking about recent nutrition and health study
Click here for ITV Westcountry interview and read press release below (covered in Times and Daily Mail).Expert reaction to substance found in broccoli, metabolism and ageing, as published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition*
Dr Gail Rees, Lecturer in Human Nutrition, Plymouth University, said:
“This is an exciting study that demonstrates how eating broccoli benefits our metabolism. It is of huge scientific interest as we are now starting to unravel exactly which components of fruit and vegetables are responsible for good health and what the specific effects are.
“The study published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition is particularly important because it shows the advantages of eating regular but reasonable portion sizes of a special type of broccoli high in glucoraphanin. The study also demonstrates that the response to eating this type of broccoli is dependent on genetic makeup, so how beneficial it is to your health varies according to your genetics.
“We must remember that there are thousands of bioactive components in fruit and vegetables and we need to have a mixture of different types daily. This novel type of broccoli, grown to have a high amount of this particular bioactive component, is not yet widely available in the UK and may have cost implications for consumers.
“The best advice is to continue to consume at least five portions of different fruit and vegetables per day as part of a healthy diet. Reduction of cancer risk and healthy ageing are also dependent on decreasing alcohol and fat consumption, reducing smoking, lowering body weight and regular exercise. This study was carried out on 48 people so it was a fairly small study and may now need to be carried out on a larger sample size to ensure the results are representative of the wider population.”
*Armah CN, Traka MH, Dainty JR , Defernez M, Janssens A, Leung W, Doleman JF, Potter JF, and Mithen RF
(2013) A diet rich in high-glucoraphanin broccoli interacts with genotype to reduce discordance in plasma metabolite profiles by modulating mitochondrial function. Am J Clin Nutr 98: 712-722
