Though regular moderate exercise is known to be good for us, the increased demand on our bodies is also known to cause damage to our DNA.  

According to a new study from scientists at Edinburgh Napier University and a team lead by Dr Gareth Davison at the University of Ulster, eating watercress can prevent some of the damage caused by high intensity exercise and help maximise the benefits of a tough workout.

The study findings have now been published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Study leader Dr Mark Fogarty, from Edinburgh Napier’s School of Life, Sport and Social Sciences, said: “Although we are all aware of how good exercise can be for our bodies, pounding the treadmill, lifting weights, or doing high-levels of training can take its toll. The increased demand on the body for energy can create a build-up of free radicals which can damage our DNA.“What we’ve found is that consuming a relatively small amount of watercress each day can help raise the levels of important antioxidant vitamins which may help protect our bodies, and allow us to enjoy the rewards of keeping fit. It’s an interesting step forward in sports nutrition development and research.”

Ten healthy men, aged on average of 23 years, participated in the study. For eight weeks they were given 85 grams of watercress – a small bag – and asked to participate in high-level exercise on the treadmill. An eight week study with no watercress consumption was carried out to act as a control.

The scientists also tested whether the protection properties of watercress were affected by the regularity of consumption. And they found that participants with no watercress in their system who ate the leafy vegetable just two hours before high level exercise still experienced the same level of protection.

Dr Fogarty said: “We put participants through short bursts of intense exercise and found that those who had not eaten watercress were found to have more DNA damage than those that did not. What was also fascinating is that the effect of eating watercress was not reliant on an accumulative build-up in our bodies. Those that ate the vegetable just two hours before exercise experienced the same benefits as those who had consumed the vegetable for eight weeks.”
He added: “A bag of watercress a day may be influential in aiding the bodies healing process. However, sensible advice when exercising still stands and whether you are consuming watercress or not, you should always stay hydrated and listen to your body when it tells you enough is enough.”

The study was sponsored by Vitacress Salads, one of Europe’s leading growers of watercress. Dr Steve Rothwell of Vitacress Salads said: “This is a fantastic reaffirmation of the outstanding health attributes of watercress. It is always gratifying to see rigorous scientific studies such as this validate the belief held for millennia that watercress is a very special food. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, was a great fan of watercress and indeed until the late 1800s watercress was regarded as a medicine rather than a delicious food. “Dr Fogarty’s findings, added to published work demonstrating its anticancer properties, make for a compelling case to make sure watercress is a regular feature in our 5 a day.”

ENDS
Notes to Editor:
The University of Ulster research team was led by Dr Gareth Davison.
About Edinburgh Napier University:
Edinburgh Napier is a modern university with campuses located around south central Edinburgh. It offers over 200 undergraduate and post graduate courses and has around 17,500 students from over 115 countries. Edinburgh Napier is among the top universities in the UK for graduate employability.

British watercress farmers are one step closer to becoming the ‘champagne’ of the cress world after passing the first stage of their battle to gain EU protected status for the age-old method of growing watercress in pure, mineral rich flowing water. After some two years of preparation and screening, Defra has been able to submit the application for TSG (traditional speciality guaranteed) protected status to the EU Commission for consideration.

If successful and the watercress growers win EU backing, only plants grown in and harvested from flowing water will be allowed to be sold as watercress. Cress grown in soil will, by law, have to be called something other than watercress.

Happy Couples: Serve Salmon with Watercress to Fight Cancer.

Watercress contains the plant chemical sulforaphane, a weapon against cancer. Salmon is a source of trace mineral selenium, a lack of which has been linked with higher instances of breast, lung and bladder cancer.

Researchers at the Institute of Food Research found a combination of sulforaphane and selenium had a powerful impact on genes which play an important role in tumour development.

Daily Mail, 26 July 2011

Zest For Life.

A new book highlights a recent study by Oregan State University which indicates that cruciferous vegetables such as watercress are thought to contain a molecule which eliminates toxic compounds linked to the development of cancer.

The research has shown sulforaphane, the molecule that gives brassicas their sharp taste and watercress its peppery flavour, is thought to eliminate toxic compounds linked to the development of cancer and may trigger the self-destruction of types of cancer cells. The study found sulforaphane can specifically destroy prostate cancer cells.

The book, Zest for Life: The Mediterranean Anti-Cancer Diet, is written by nutritionist, health writer and health cookery instructor Connor Middelmann-Whitney, and featured in the Daily Express on Tuesday 21 June. Eleven years ago, Middlemann-Whitney overcame early-stage cervical cancer and has been a passionate advocate of lifestyle cancer prevention ever since.

Increasingly, scientific studies are making links between food and cancer preventing properties, suggesting that a colourful diet rich in fresh fruit, vegetables, beans, soya, fatty fish, nuts and even chocolate, tea and wine can significantly lower our risk of the disease.  Recent research with the universities of Ulster and Southampton have highlighted the role that watercress may be able to play in According to the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research up to 30 per cent of all cancers can be prevented by lifestyle and nutritional measures.

Research carried out by the University of Ulster and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (February 2007), found that eating watercress daily could significantly reduce DNA damage to blood cells.  In addition it found a daily portion of watercress could also increase the ability of those cells to resist further DNA damage caused by free radicals.

In September 2010, research conducted by the University of Southampton revealed that a plant compound in watercress may have the ability to suppress breast cancer cell development by “turning off” a signal in the body and thereby starving the growing tumour of essential blood and oxygen.

Simply Bursts with Health!

Since the Earl of Sandwich paired watercress with cold roast beef in the nation’s first-ever takeaway back in 1762, watercress has been favoured as the salad leaf of choice in countless sarnies through the centuries. In Victorian England, watercress between two slices of bread was the poor man’s breakfast, releasing energy slowly throughout the day to sustain a much more physical lifestyle than the majority of us lead today. As this year’s National Watercress Week coincides with National Sandwich Week (15-22 May), British watercress farmers decided to celebrate the role of watercress in the history of the venerated sandwich by asking leading nutritionist, Lyndel Costain to devise a super healthy and nutritious sandwich.

Recent media coverage of ‘the sandwich’ has focused on how unhealthy the shop bought variety can be, dripping with fatty dressings such as mayonnaise and full of high fat and salt ingredients such as bacon. In contrast, the sandwich developed by Lyndel simply bursts with health!  Containing a delicious and interesting mix of red salmon, avocado, light soft cheese, red peppers, herbs, strawberries and of course watercress, it is all held together between two slices of wholemeal bread. It provides foods from each of the four main food groups; two of the recommended three daily servings of fibre rich wholegrains; oily fish – recommended once a week; vegetables and fruit – giving you one of your five a day; herbs that boost the antioxidant content and calcium rich dairy food courtesy of the cheese.

The World’s Healthiest Sandwich is also brimming with 18 essential vitamins and minerals including 133% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C and 180% of Vitamin D as well as good quantities of several B vitamins and key minerals. What’s more, this delicious lunch time feast is perfect for slimmers or anyone watching their weight as it weighs in at a mere 358 calories.

Lyndel Costain, nutritionist, explains how the nutrients in the sandwich work together in the body to maximise their health benefits, “The individual ingredients in this sandwich each provide their own health benefits, not least the watercress. However, there are synergies between certain nutrients of which the average sandwich eater may not be aware. For example, the vitamin D present in the sandwich helps the calcium to be absorbed efficiently by the body, the vitamin C regenerates the vitamin E to help maximise its antioxidant effect. Vitamin C also boosts iron absorption and the natural oils in the avocado and salmon help with the absorption of carotenoids and vitamins A, D, E and K. Finally, the inclusion of herbs enhances the overall antioxidant content of the sandwich. It really packs in plenty of nutrition.”

Here’s how to make it:

The World’s Healthiest Sandwich Ingredients
2 slices of wholemeal bread
30g avocado
20g Philadelphia light soft cheese
25g watercress
40g red salmon canned in brine, drained and use flesh only
3 strawberries
¼ of a red pepper
2 sprigs of fresh herbs, eg marjoram or parsley

Tom Amery of the Watercress Alliance says: “Looking at the list of ingredients Lyndel has selected, we really believe that this must rank as the World’s Healthiest Sandwich. Along with other nutritious ingredients it contains watercress which gram for gram contains more vitamin C than an orange, more iron than spinach, more folate than bananas, more vitamin E than broccoli, more calcium than milk and that new research is also highlighting how it may help in the fight against cancer, you really would be hard pressed to eat something more healthy than this sandwich!”

Scientists are reporting discovery of a potential biochemical basis for the apparent cancer-fighting ability of broccoli and its cruciferous cousins which include watercress. They found for the first time that certain substances in the vegetables appear to target and block a defective gene associated with cancer. Their report, which could lead to new strategies for preventing and treating cancer, appears in ACS’.

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110126131906.htm