Recent research from Kansas State University suggests that wholegrain wheat is an important anti-carcinogenic food because of its powerful antioxidants.
Biochemist Dolores Takemoto conducted new research which showed that rather than the fibre contained in wheat, it is the powerful antioxidants which make it so successful in the prevention of colon cancer, and a possible factor in the prevention of diabetes and heart disease.
With this information, scientists at the university may be able to create modified wheat strains with high levels of cancer-fighting chemicals.
"We hope we will be able to create a genetically modified plant," Takemoto said. "We won't be modifying it to adapt to its environment, like most genetically modified plants, but we will be modifying it to produce more of its own cancer-fighting chemicals. We want to produce for the Kansas community strains of wheat that are nutraceuticals, higher quality grains that have enhanced amounts of these antioxidants in them."
Antioxidants are important because they are able to fight the body's free-radicals, charged particles produced by the body which can cause damage in certain reactions.
"Throughout life you make a lot of free radicals," Takemoto said. "You want to keep them from forming because they contribute to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, cataracts, even wrinkling. High antioxidant levels mop up the free-radicals."
In wheat, antioxidants are found in the plant's orthophenols. The Kansas researchers have started to develop wheat with high levels of orthophenols with a view to producing a dietary supplement which could help to prevent cancer.
Preliminary tests show that some available wheat strains already contain a great number of orthophenols.
"Several high antioxidant wheat strains are already available for growing," Takemoto said. "People worry about the antioxidants not surviving baking, but some of the strains we tested had high antioxidant levels across the board. These could be grown now and they do survive baking well."
Antioxidants can be found in several vitamins, including vitamin E and vitamin D, but research shows that eating whole grain products and wheat germ is critical for the antioxidants to be absorbed.
"I like to argue against taking a pill," Takemoto added. "Only very stable vitamins provide the high levels of antioxidants needed, and even then they don't have very long shelf lives. Folic acid, for example, doesn't have a long shelf life for keeping high antioxidant levels. Many people use vitamin pills to compensate for a poor diet, but including wholegrain wheat into your regular diet will have greater effects."
The project is being funded by the Kansas Wheat Commission.