Is bread giving you cancer?

If you eat bread or other cooked starches, there's a toxin you have to watch out for. The toxin is acrylamide and it can cause cancer. Acrylamide forms when you heat starches. So the toxin is actually very prevalent in fried snacks and other processed starches. But this toxin can do a lot more than just cause cancer (as if that weren't enough).

Researchers have found that acrylamide also impairs your energy reserves. Acrylamide inactivates a key enzyme in your body called creatine kinase. This enzyme creates a backup store of energy to the universal energy molecule called ATP. So eating this poison could damage your ability to store energy.

Continued Below...

It also damages DNA in your liver. That's never good for your health.

But there's an easy way to protect yourself against this toxin. Bioflavonoids, particularly resveratrol and green tea, block the damage. So do the sulfur compounds in garlic.

And the news gets even better. The flavonoids and garlic also prevent the damage to creatine kinase. This will protect your body's energy stores. Furthermore, these nutrients also increase the activity of a very important liver detoxification enzyme called glutathione S-transferase. This can protect your liver from DNA damage.

If you're like me, bread is hard to stay away from. And I've had concerns about heated starches for some time. It's good to know the supplements I'm already taking are protecting me.

Garlic is a regular part of my diet. I throw several cloves into our salad dressing recipe (which subscribers to my Second Opinion newsletter can get on my website). We add it to raw soups.

You can find resveratrol in grapes, as you probably know. When grapes are out of season, or if you're interested in maximum protection, I suggest supplementing with resveratrol. I usually take either Seanol or resveratrol (110 mg) every day. Both of these fine products are available from Advanced Bionutritionals. You may find resveratrol in your local health food store or online, but Seanol is more difficult to find.

Correction: Last Friday, I told you about an amazing new way to detect breast cancer called the Donna Glove. This device is truly remarkable. It can detect lumps as small as a grain of sand. Unfortunately, we told you the wrong price. We told you that the price was only $15. But the price is actually $60. I'm sorry for the mistake and any inconvenience this may have caused you. The price is still considerably less than a mammogram and its accuracy is better than a mammogram. Plus, it's completely pain free. So don't let this price scare you away. It's worth every penny. For more information and to order, simply follow this link: www.youcanpreventcancer.com. (This is the link I gave you last week. At that time, their order link was down. It is now up and functional. You now can order securely from their site.)

Xie Q, Liu Y, Sun H, Liu Y, Ding X, Fu D, Liu K, Du X, Jia G. Inhibition of Acrylamide Toxicity in Mice by Three Dietary Constituents. J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Jul 15. Published online ahead of print.

Talmor Y, Golan E, Benchetrit S, Bernheim J, Klein O, Green J, Rashid G. Calcitriol blunts the deleterious impact of advanced glycation end products on endothelial cells. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2008 May;294(5):F1059-64.