Wearing your food
By Katie Greene
From Baltimore, at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research
Broccoli, no doubt, is a healthful food. But for those who don’t like its flavor, there may be another way to reap the vegetable’s benefits. Researchers have determined that when sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli, is applied to the skin of cancer-prone mice after sun exposure, they develop fewer skin tumors then they otherwise would.
The team exposed hairless mice to intensities of ultraviolet light comparable to what a person would soak up sunbathing twice a week for 20 weeks. For the next 11 weeks, the mice received either high or low topical doses of sulforaphane or no treatment at all.