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| Fortunately, foods, especially organically grown plant foods, contain many anticarcinogens. Most natural anticarcinogens act as scavengers of reactive oxidative waste in the body by blocking or reducing free radical damage and as enzyme inhibitors, selectively blocking cancer-cell metabolism. |
| Free radicals are unstable reactive molecules that contain unpaired electrons. The normal process of oxygen use promotes free radicals that cause molecular damage or insults. If the number of such insults exceeds what a human body can normally handle, free radicals can harm the cells. By altering genetic material, free radicals can disrupt a cell's cancer-prevention apparatus and impair its ability to do other chemical work. |
| The way free radicals do harm to the cells is simple. The cell is made up of many molecules that bond together, creating the cell structure. Free radicals cause chemical bonds to form between molecules that are usually independent. This process is called cross-linking. By not allowing the molecules in the cell to move independently, the flexibility of the cell is reduced. This process affects two areas of the cell: the inner nucleus, where the RNA/DNA is located, and the outer cell membrane. |
| The inner nucleus of the cell is the brain of the cell, the origin of the cell's orders. If there is damage to the RNA/DNA caused by free radical cross-linkage, it will be unable to give the cell correct information for performance and reproduction. A cell with abundant cross-linkage of its RNA/DNA will mutate, a condition that is apparent in any form of cancer. |
| The outer cell membrane consists of lipids (fatty acids) and protein. The lipid part of the cell membrane is very susceptible to free radical damage by a process referred to as lipid peroxidation. By turning the lipid portion of the cell membrane rancid, this process greatly reduces the membrane flexibility. This disrupts all of the metabolic traffic going in and out of the cell and impairs the cell's ability to get the nutrients it needs and remove its wastes. This is one reason why it is so harmful to ingest processed vegetable oil. |
| A variety of external factors can promote free radical formation in fine human body: |
| Pollutants |
| Ultraviolet light |
| Alcohol |
| Margarine and other hydrogenated fats |
| Cigarette smoke |
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