Sapone Andrea, Canistro Donatella, Melega Simone, Moles Ramona, Vivarelli Fabio, Paolini Moreno
Molecular Toxicology Unit, Department of Pharmacology, Alma-Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Via Irnerio 48, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:790987. doi: 10.1155/2012/790987. Epub 2012 Sep 20.
Evidence from both epidemiological and experimental observations has fuelled the belief that the high consumption of fruits and vegetables rich in nutrients and phytochemicals may help prevent cancer and heart disease in humans. This concept has been drastically simplified from the dietary approaches to the use of single bioactive components both as a single supplement or in functional foods to manipulate xenobiotic metabolism. These procedures, which aim to induce mutagen/carcinogen detoxification or inhibit their bioactivation, fail to take into account the multiple and paradoxical biological outcomes of enzyme modulators that make their effects unpredictable. Here, we show that the idea that the physiological roles of specific catalysts may be easily manipulated by regular long-term administration of isolated nutrients and other chemicals derived from food plants is not viable. In contrast, we claim that the consumption of healthy diets is most likely to reduce mutagenesis and cancer risk, and that both research endeavours and dietary recommendations should be redirected away from single molecules to dietary patterns as a main strategy for public health policy.
流行病学和实验观察的证据都促使人们相信，大量食用富含营养和植物化学物质的水果和蔬菜可能有助于预防人类的癌症和心脏病。这个概念已经从饮食方法大幅简化为使用单一生物活性成分，无论是作为单一补充剂还是在功能性食品中，以操纵外源性物质的代谢。这些旨在诱导诱变剂/致癌物解毒或抑制其生物活化的程序，没有考虑到酶调节剂的多种矛盾的生物学结果，这些结果使得它们的效果难以预测。在这里，我们表明，通过定期长期施用分离的营养素和其他源自食用植物的化学物质来轻易操纵特定催化剂的生理作用的想法是不可行的。相反，我们认为，食用健康饮食最有可能降低诱变作用和癌症风险，并且研究工作和饮食建议都应该从单一分子转向饮食模式，将其作为公共卫生政策的主要策略。
