A woman who is physically active enough to avoid weight gain in later life and to maintain a relatively low level of fat stores would be expected to lower her risk. Since the risk of breast cancer rises sharply with age, reducing the risk of post-menopausal breast cancer is significant. Researchers in this field all agree on the overall benefits of physical activity and are alarmed by the lack of exercise and physical activity among Americans. It is expected to see a glut of foods designed to optimize health and that supermarkets of the future will have entire sections set aside for the prevention of chronic illnesses. Rather than eliminating unhealthy ingredients, such as fat, cholesterol, sugar and salt, the strategy is to create foods that have an extra amount of a compound already associated with increased health.
Many new products are now in the process of development.
Investigators are busy using a combination of traditional plant breeding, genetic engineering, and just plain chemistry to produce foods enhanced with compounds such as lycopene, beta carotene, glucosinolates and insoflavines. Prevention trials with isoflavines, compounds found in cruciferous vegetables, carrots with high carotene levels are being conducted. The new strain was a cross between purple carrots originally from Brazil and commercial ones - resulting in a maroon carrot high in both beta carotenes and anthocyanin that also tastes good. The compound responsible for the purple color, anthocyanins, a flavonoid, have anti-cancer properties in laboratory and animal experiments. Since lycopene is considered to lower cancer risk, Dr Pike is trying to incorporate lycopene from slightly red Chinese carrots into his maroon carrots.