In novel study researchers have found that consuming watercress daily could help in preventing breast cancer. They pronounce it as super food that help in turning off a signal in the body and thereby starve the tumour of crucial oxygen and blood, explained experts from the University of Southampton.
The composite PEITC (phenyl ethyl isothiocyanate) that provides the salad leaf a peppery flavor is capable to get in the way with the job of a protein that plays a vital role in the development of cancer, found the research. They conducted a study trail.
The results of trail showed that participants who ate eighty grams of watercress every day which is equal to cereal bowl had elevated levels of cancer fighting molecules in their blood within hours of consuming the salad leaves. As tumours develop they quickly outgrow their existing supply of blood.
Their further growth is not doable until they are capable to acquire sufficient oxygen and nutrients to uphold the development of cancer cells. To cross the barricade, the cancer cells release signals that cause the enclosing normal tissues to cultivate new blood vessels into the tumour which then supply oxygen and nutrients.
The protein HIF (Hypoxia Inducible Factor) is the centre of this process of inducing new blood vessel growth. Though, PEITC, of which watercress is the richest natural source, was shown in lab tests to have the capability to block the function of HIF.