"Plants with Aspirin Aspirations"
The results of the recent aspirin meta-analyses suggesting
a reduction of cancer mortality by about a third
in subjects taking daily low-dose aspirin can justly be called astounding.
Yet the protection from "Western" cancers enjoyed by those
eating more traditional plant- centered diets is even more dramatic.
Before the Westernization of their diets,
animal products made up only about 5% or less of the Japanese diet.
And here's their cancer rates, compared to the United States at the time.
Note that age-adjusted death rates from cancers of the colon, prostate, breast,
and ovary were on the order of 5 to 10 times lower in Japan than in the US,
with mortality from pancreatic cancer, leukemias, and lymphomas
three- to four-fold lower.
But this phenomenon was by no means isolated to Japan.
Western cancers were likewise comparatively rare
in other societies where people ate plant-based diets.
The cancer protection afforded by lifelong consumption of a plant-based diet,
in conjunction with leanness and insulin sensitivity
that tends to come along with it may be very substantial indeed.
Therefore, a lifestyle protocol for minimizing cancer risk
may include a whole-food plant-based diet.
Now if part of this cancer protection arises
out of the aspirin phytonutrients in plants,
are there any plants in particular that are packed with salicylates?
Though salicyclic acid, the main active ingredient in aspirin,
is ubiquitously present in fruits and vegetables,
herbs and spices contain the highest concentrations.
Chili powder, paprika, turmeric have a lot, but cumin is like 1% aspirin by weight.
Eating a teaspoon of cumin is like taking a baby aspirin.
Consequently, populations that incorporate substantial amounts
of spices in foods may have markedly higher daily intakes of salicylates.
Indeed, it's been suggested that the low incidence of colorectal cancer
among Indian populations may be ascribed in part
to high exposure to dietary salicylates throughout life from spice consumption.
The population in rural India has one of the lowest rates of colorectal cancer
in the world, and they have a diet that could be extremely rich
in salicylic acid, given the substantial amounts of plant foods
flavored with large quantities of herbs and spices.
Some have proposed it's the curcumin in the spice turmeric,
but maybe it's the salicylic acid in cumin.
And the spicier, the better.
A spicy veggie vindaloo may have four times
the salicylates of a milder Madras-style veggie dish.
One meal and you get a spike in your bloodstream like you just took an aspirin.
So eating flavor-filled vegetarian meals, with herbs and spices,
may be more chemoprotective, meaning more preventive against cancer
than just regular, more bland vegetarian meals.
We may also want to eat organic.
Because salicylic acid is a defense hormone of plants,
the concentration is increased when plants become stressed,
like when plants are bitten by bugs, unlike pesticide-laden plants.
And indeed, soups made from organic vegetables
were found to have nearly 6 times more salicylic acid
than soups prepared from conventionally grown ingredients.
We should also choose whole foods.
Whole grain breads, which are high in salicylic acid,
contain about 100 times more phytochemicals than white bread,
800 perhaps, compared to 8.
That does raise the question, though, what about the other 799?
Interest in the potential beneficial effects of dietary salicylates has risen, in part,
because of the extensive literature on the disease-preventative effects of aspirin.
However, it should not be forgotten that plant products, found to contain
salicylic acid, are generally rich sources of a whole long list
of other phytonutrients, many of which have
marked anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity as well.
Their potential protective effects should therefore not be overlooked.
In this context, the importance of dietary salicylic acid
should not perhaps be over emphasized.
Indeed, some believe that "salicylic acid deficiency"
has such important public health implications that it should be classed
as an essential vitamin, namely "Vitamin S,"
but what they're really saying is that we should all just have to eat a lot of plants.