Researchers at the University of Warwick found that the protein, called Nrf2, continually moves in and out of the nuclei of human cells to sense the cell’s health and vitality. When Nrf2 is exposed to threats to the cell’s health it oscillates faster and activates an increase in the cell’s defense mechanism, including raising the levels of antioxidants.

The researchers, from the University’s Warwick Medical School, successfully increased the speed of Nrf2’s movement by introducing health beneficial substances comprised from broccoli-derived sulforaphane and quercetin, which is found in high-levels in onions.

The research team is the first to record the continual movement cycle of Nrf2, which sees the protein oscillate in and out of the cell nucleus once every 129 minutes. When stimulated by health beneficial vegetable-derived substances of broccoli and onion, Nrf2’s cycle sped up to 80 minutes.

Lead researcher says, “The way Nrf2 works is very similar to sensors in electronic devices that rely on continual reassessment of their surroundings to provide an appropriate response. The health benefit of Nrf2 oscillating at a fast speed is that surveillance of cell health is increased when most needed, that is, when cells are under threat.

Antioxidants and Redox Signaling

Comments by Dr. Keith & Laurie Nemec on “Superfoods that act as computer scanners to monitor cell health”:

What this research demonstrated is that God’s natural food stimulates the cells to function at the optimally designed level. The Nrf2 protein acts like a computer going in and out of the cell looking for any abnormality in the cell structure or function. At the first sign of any cell duress it activates antioxidant activity that aids in repair and maintenance. The amazing thing is when you eat broccoli and onions the Nrf2 protein’s activity almost doubles. This is huge when maintaining cellular health because cells are constantly being broken down and damaged with free radicals coming in from the environment and those being generated by normal cellular metabolism.

What foods like broccoli and onions do is to simply see the damage quicker and set off the repair order quicker. This can be analogous to a person who has a hole in the bottom of their boat and the water is running in fast. If you take twice as long to stop that leak it might be too late. The boat will either sink or have severe internal damage. When your cells get a hole in their cell membrane they begin to leak fluid from the outside (extracellular) environment into the controlled inside (intracellular) environment. If too much fluid leaks in then the cell membrane ruptures causing the cell to die. With cell health time is always of the essence so why not just speed up the surveillance and repair process by eating some broccoli and onion each day. To this we would add another vegetable that is equally if not more powerful in overall health- garlic.

Not only does raw garlic cause cancer cells, bacteria, viruses and parasites to die it also acts as a prebiotic and a probiotic at the same time and most amazingly it perform the smart bomb function by killing the bad bacteria and yeast in the intestinal tract but growing the good bacteria. Only God’s food could know what to kill and what to grow.

To sum it up:

  1. Eat as much living/raw plant food as possible it has health benefits that are so numerous they have not even started to discover. Make sure you eat some broccoli or even better (50 times better) eat broccoli sprouts. To that add either green or red onions and finally eat as much raw garlic as you can. This can all be put into a salad daily.
  2. The cells have a God given wisdom to remain healthy. If you get back to simple pure food, pure water, good sleep, regular exercise and living fully in each moment then the body will do what it was designed to do which is to always heal and maintain longevity.

Sometimes in our search for health we forget that basics are always best. Just get back to basics and your life and health will work much better.