It’s ridiculous, right? How can pepper soup help to prevent/treat colon cancer?
First, What is Pepper soup (light soup)?
Pepper soup is made with meat (fish) stock water, with ingredients such as red chili peppers, peppercorn, cloves, ginger, garlic, thyme (optional). Almost all the ingredients that are used to make pepper soup or light soup have anti-cancer or cancer treatment properties.
Light soup is another version of pepper soup that has a similar ingredient with the addition of blended tomatoes which is also a plus because tomato is another ingredient that helps to prevent cancer.
Other spices found in pepper soup can also prevent and treat cancer such as red chili pepper, black pepper and peppercorn. Capsaicin is a component found in red chili pepper that can help to prevent or treat cancer. The anti-cancer compound in black pepper and peppercorn is known as piperine. However, in this post, I focus on ginger specifically because it helps to prevent and fight colon cancer.
Ginger and Colon Cancer
Ginger has been studied not only to prevent other forms of cancer but specifically colon cancer. Amongst different types of cancers, colon cancer is the second leading cancer and over a hundred thousand diagnoses every year. It is possible to prevent colon cancer or lower your chances of getting it by eating certain foods that help to stop or fight it.
Ginger helps with the digestion of food because of certain compounds and proteins (enzymes) in it that helps food to move through the digestive tract properly which makes scientist suggest that ginger can help in preventing colon cancer and constipation (not being able to stool or poop). Ginger also helps to remove toxins from the body, it is known to be a great element to cleanse or detox your digestive system specifically the colon.
Compounds in ginger found to help stop cancer growth
Aside from cleaning the colon and helping to improve digestion, scientists have found compounds in ginger that are of great importance to the human body; 6-gingerol, paradols, and shogaols. These compounds do amazing things in the body. I will talk about the role the other compounds play in another post. Here, I focus on 6-gingerol. This compound has been found to prevent cancer, specifically colon cancer. 6-gingerol has been known to have anti-proliferative and antitumor properties. Antiproliferative is when a cell stops growing. Antitumor means to stop tumor cell from growing. This compound stops cancerous tumor cells from growing which is good when treating cancer.
6-gingerol:
- Stops cell growth in colon cancer. When cancer cells stop growing, it is good because it stops the cancer cells from spreading to different parts of the body. However, when cancer cells keep growing it can spread to other parts of the body which can make treating cancer difficult. A study done by Brown [3] and his lab, showed that ginger extract stopped cancerous cell growth in the colon of rats.
- Stops blood flow or blood supply to the tumor. Blood carries nutrients to different cells in different parts of our body, as it is feeding normal cells it also feeds the cancer cells which will make the cancer cells to keep growing and therefore spreading through the body. When blood supply is cut off from cancer cells, they are starved of nutrients so they die which helps with fighting cancer. The same study by Brown and his lab [3] also showed that not only did the ginger extract stop cancer cell growth in the colon but also it stopped blood from getting to the cancer cells.
- Helps to controls apoptosis aka cell suicide? When a cell in your body is not functioning right if it doesn’t die it can turn into a cancer cell and continue to grow. In apoptosis, the cell recognizes that it is not a good cell so it tells itself to kill itself so that it doesn’t become a cancer cell. Another name for apoptosis is called programmed cell death or cell suicide. The compound in ginger, 6-gingerol has been found to help in cell apoptosis, with bad cells killing themselves before they become cancerous.
Ginger is an important ingredient that doesn’t only give meals an awesome flavor but it has a great benefit to health. Food is really medicine if you are eating the right kind of food. If you do not use it, I suggest you start and if you use it in your pepper soup, light soup, and other soup, keep using it. Food is your medicine!
FAQ
Can I use ginger only in pepper soup or light soup?
No, you can blend ginger root or add ginger powder to any soup. I put ginger and other spices found in pepper soup in my tomato soup, Palm-nut soup (Banga soup), peanut soup and sometimes okra soup.
Is ginger spicy like pepper?
No, ginger is not spicy like a red chili pepper. I use just ginger, garlic, onions and black pepper for my children’s pepper soup because they can not tolerate spicy food yet.
Can I use vegetable stock water for pepper soup instead of meat?
Yes, if you are a vegan or vegetarian, you can start your soup with vegetable stock water and add the pepper soup spices to it. You can use plant-based bouillon for flavor.
Do I need to add pepper to my pepper soup?
No, if you can not handle pepper, you can skip the pepper. Remember there are other anti-cancer spices already in pepper soup.
No, if you can not handle pepper, you can skip the pepper. Remember there are other anti-cancer spices already in pepper soup.
Which is better fresh ginger root or ginger powder?
Fresh ginger root is always better, ginger powder has been processed. Using fresh ginger root gives you the maximum nutrients and helps your food taste even better compared to the powder.
What are other things you can do with ginger?
I recommend Ginger tea, mix the powder in hot water and add honey or blend the ginger root, bring it to a boil and then strain it.
Here is my favorite Ginger tea,
Where can I find ginger root or ginger powder?
You can find ginger root in your local grocery store the produce section, African grocery stores, International markets, Asian stores, Hispanic grocery stores or Amazon. You can find ginger powder in the spice section in a grocery store, Amazon or Vitamin or medicine store.
Some of my favorites from Amazon are:
How can I learn how to make pepper soup or light soup?
Look no further, check out my recipe book with this link: Afromeals 30 Minutes meal and More
Sources
- Zheng, J., Zhou, Y., Li, Y., Xu, D. P., Li, S., & Li, H. B. (2016). Spices for prevention and treatment of cancers. Nutrients, 8(8), 495.
- de Lima, R. M. T., dos Reis, A. C., de Menezes, A. A. P. M., Santos, J. V. D. O., Filho, J. W. G. D. O., Ferreira, J. R. D. O., … & Uddin, S. J. (2018). Protective and therapeutic potential of ginger (Zingiber officinale) extract and [6]‐gingerol in cancer: A comprehensive review. Phytotherapy research, 32(10), 1885-1907.
- Brown, A. C., Shah, C., Liu, J., Pham, J. T., Zhang, J. G., & Jadus, M. R. (2009). Ginger’s (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) inhibition of rat colonic adenocarcinoma cells proliferation and angiogenesis in vitro. Phytotherapy Research: An International Journal Devoted to Pharmacological and Toxicological Evaluation of Natural Product Derivatives, 23(5), 640-645.
Check out our meals by clicking the link
