Cancer-Fighting Wasabi

By Robert Rister

There is growing evidence that wasabi every day keeps the cancer specialist away. Wasabi is an aquatic vegetable in the same family as broccoli, cabbage, kale, and watercress. Like the other crucifers, wasabi contains high concentrations of cancer-fighting isothiocyanates. Unlike the other crucifers, the wasabi root produces primarily only one of these anticancer chemicals, 6-methylsulfinylhexyl isothiocyanate. These chemicals kill certain kinds of cancer cells.

In the case of leukemia cells, this chemical signals the damaged cell that its life cycle is over, and that it should die rather than multiply. Obligingly, it does. In the case of solid cancer tumors, this chemical keeps blood from clotting around tumors long enough for the tumor to reach out and burrow its own blood supply. The 6-methylsulfinylhexyl isothiocyanate does not kill the cancer directly, but it helps starve it out of existence before it can spread.

This chemical is also heart-healthy. 6-methylsufinylhexyl isothiocyanate stops the formation of blood clots better than aspirin, and at least one physician suggests it could be adapted to use in the emergency room for treating chest pain.

If you make wasabi from a wasabi tuber, you should give it a good brushing first. Peeling is not necessary. Japanese chefs prepare wasabi is prepared by grating the fresh rhizome against a rough surface, traditionally a sharkskin grater. The sharkskin gives grated wasabi a smooth, soft and aromatic finish. Japanese diners typically spread a tiny amount of wasabi paste on fish (sashimi, raw fish by itself, or sushi, raw or cooked fish rolled in sweet and sour rice), and then dip the side of the fish that does not have wasabi on it in soy sauce. The soy sauce does not touch the wasabi.

American diners often dump soy sauce in their chopstick holders and vigorously stir their wasabi in the sauce, making "wasabi-joyu," literally "wasabi and soy." This disperses the wasabi flavor through the sauce, but makes it impossible to taste the wasabi with your palate rather than with your tongue in most wasabi recipes.

Not product that reads "wasabi" on the label is really wasabi. The wasabi powder you find in the majority of grocery stores and that is used in a majority of sushi restaurants in the United States really shouldn't be called wasabi at all. Manufacturers cut costs by using dried horseradish powder, some dried mustard, a little cornstarch, and yellow and blue dyes to make green. This faux wasabi you find in stores is much more convenient and a great deal less expensive than the real thing, but has few of its healing properties.

Read about diet as a treatment for stage 1 Breast Cancer and Cinnamon for Diabetes, High Triglycerides, and High Cholesterol. Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books on natural health.

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