Carcinogenic and Anticarcinogenic Food Components (Chemical and Functional Properties of Food Components Series)

Dietary cancer prophylaxis is based on the detailed knowledge of carcinogenic and anticarcinogenic properties of food constituents. Although much data has been collected on these elements, an understanding of the causal mechanisms that link diet and cancer is still evolving. Carcinogenic and Anticarcinogenic Food Components explains the broad spectrum of information available on these compounds and examines what is behind their complexities. Internationally renowned biochemists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, and food scientists present the most recent studies that relate cancer risk to particular dietary components and discuss the latest clinical trials that evaluate the benefits of nutritional interventions. They discuss dietary sources containing carcinogenic compounds, their abundance in foods, and their possible cancer risks. Conversely, they explain the cancer- preventive potential of food components and the basic mechanisms and targets of chemoprevention. Chapters focus on the phenolic compounds found in tea, wine polyphenols and resveratrol, flavanoids of fruits and vegetables, carotenoids, constituents of cruciferous vegetables, and phytoestrogens. Additional information highlights the molecular and cellular events mediated by exposure to food carcinogens or chemopreventive agents. The book concludes with a perspective on the impact of diet on cancer prevention based on human trials and discusses future directions of research in this important field. Wide-ranging in scope and thorough in detail, Carcinogenic and Anticarcinogenic Food Components is an important resource for those interested in leveraging vital information on cancer promoting and cancer preventing food components.