Capers: A Carnivore's Best Bud

Adding capers to meat recipes may have a cancer-fighting
nutritional perk, an Italian study shows.

Capers are the buds of the Capparis spinosa plant that are stabilized
with brine or salt. Capers, which taste tart, are classic ingredients in their
native Mediterranean region.

Italian researchers report that antioxidants in capers may offset oxidation
from the digestion of meat. Oxidation can cause DNA damage linked to cancer.
Antioxidants, which come in many forms and are found in plants, guard against
oxidation.

Researchers including Maria Livrea, PhD, of Italy's Universita di Palermo,
studied antioxidants in capers.

Livrea's team brewed their own caper extract from salt-treated Sicilian
capers and measured antioxidants in the caper extract.

The scientists then added the caper extract to ground, grilled turkey meat
in a test tube, along with fluids similar to those in the stomach. They kept
the caper-to-meat ratio in line with typical recipes.

The basic idea was to simulate digestion in a lab while monitoring oxidation
from fat in the meat.

Antioxidants in the caper extract hampered the buildup of oxidation
by-products from the meat, as well as boosting vitamin E.

Capers "may have beneficial health effects, especially for people whose
meals are rich in fats and red meats," Livrea and colleagues write in the
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario
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