Varsity don identifies foods that prevent cancer, diabetes, prolong life

From: Femi  Oyelola, Kaduna

A Nigerian Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Toxicology, Ebenezer Olatunde Farombi, has identified local food substances that can prevent diabetes, hypertension, cancer, liver and kidney diseases as well as prolong life.

This was even as he said that, the surest and fastest way to stop cancer and other chronic diseases in Nigeria is through the adoption of chemoprevention, which he described as a “pharmacological intervention with specific nutrients, phytochemicals or supplements to suppress or reverse progression of chronic diseases such as cancer.”

He, however, called on governments to formulate policies that will encourage Nigerians to practice chemoprevention, which he said increases life span of individual by delaying mortality and decreases incidence of diseases like cancer.

Professor Farombi who is a Fellow, Academy of Toxicological Sciences (FATS), USA, how disclosed essential food substances Nigerians should take, while delivering a keynote address to the 43rd Annual Conference of the West African Society for Pharmacology (Kaduna 2022), held at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Kaduna State University.

Speaking to the conference theme; ‘Mitigating Mediators of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation: A Fulcrum in the Pharmacotherapy of Diseases’, Professor Farombi said, “as human beings, we inhale a lot of damaging substances and take in contaminated stuffs, which can one way or the other damage the system and cause diseases.”

He, however, advised Nigerians to take certain foods that can counteract and work against some of those toxic substances they take, identifying the food substances; ginger, turmeric, bitter leaf and bitter cola, among several antioxidants.

Professor Farombi who is on the University of Ibadan, said, “Antioxidants are just agents that are present in most of the food substances that we take especially fruits and vegetables. And the role of antioxidants in the systems is more or less to prevent diseases, cancer, liver disease, heart diseases, cardiovascular diseases and all sorts of things. That is exactly what antioxidants do to our body.