Current news reports about cancer-fighting chemicals in rhubarb may lead some people to think that eating a lot of rhubarb is a good idea. Bad move! Rhubarb is widely renowned as a laxative!
Researchers have found that the traditional favourite, like many red vegetables, contains cancer killing chemicals.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Eating baked rhubarb could help fight cancer, research suggests.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Not only do the Telegraph and the Daily Mail get the story wrong, but the idea that rhubarb contains substances that may help fight cancer is old news.
Rhubarb has been used as a traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times and today it is still present in various herbal preparations. In this review the toxicological and anti-neoplastic potentials of the main anthraquinones from Rhubarb, Rheum palmatum, will be highlighted.
Huang Q, et al, Anti-cancer properties of anthraquinones from Rhubarb.
Med Res Rev. 2006 Oct 4
In an exceedingly well written article entitled: Claims Over Rhubarb Cure Crumble, an un-named writer on Britains NHS website tears the Daily Telegraph article to shreds.
The article shows where the story came from, what kind of research was actually done and how the researchers interpreted their results. The article concludes with the words:
Further research is needed to assess how the chemicals found in rhubarb are broken down by cooking and whether these chemicals have any effect on disease.
As I said, it is an exceedingly well written article. Just two small things spoil it. The URL string nhs.uk/.../rhubarb-polyphenols-fight-disease-cancer.aspx implies that the 'rhubarb is good for cancer' claim is true. And the header, which shows at the top of browsers and in tabs says:
Eating rhubarb may fight diseases like cancer.
Now, for anyone actually troubling themselves to read the article, it is obvious that someone has made an editorial boo-boo in the html department. Browser headers are a trap for the unwary. No researcher should or would rely on the headers in Google search results to determine who is saying what.
A quick glance at the article's URL or a Google results page makes it appear that the NHS is actually supporting the idea that "eating rhubarb may fight diseases like cancer". Which, on my reading of their article, is absolutely not the case.
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