Carrots, celery, oranges, grapes, and cabbage are among plant-based foods that have the largest number of anti-cancer molecules, according to new research from the Imperial College of London.
In a report published on nature.com and called “HyperFoods: Machine intelligent mapping of cancer-beating molecules in foods,” researchers said they found that plant-based foods such as tea, carrot, celery, orange, grape, coriander, cabbage and dill contain the largest number of molecules with high anti-cancer likeness.
“Our large scale computational analysis further demonstrates more cancer-beating potential of certain foods calling for more tailored nutritional strategies,” the authors said. However, the research acknowledged limitations of the study’s methodology, including questions of how much bioactive molecules would be needed to fight cancer.
“Nevertheless, food represents the single biggest modifiable aspect of an individual’s health and the machine learning strategy described here is a first step in realizing the potential role for “smart” nutritional programs in the prevention and treatment of cancer,” the authors said. “Moreover, it will pave the way to the future of hyperfoods and gastronomic medicine, encouraging the introduction of personalized “food passports” to provide nutritious, tailored and therapeutically functional foods for every individual in order to benefit the wider population.”
