Are asparagus carcinogens?

A study that appeared in the famous Journal of Nature – a study that talks about asparagine (amino acid that takes its name from asparagus, which contain it together with potatoes and the outer part of coffee beans) as a possible substance that triggers the spread of metastases for breast cancer – it has become viral and indirect source of many alarmisms among people, who now wonder if and how asparagus can be considered carcinogenic and therefore even dangerous for health. But what exactly does the study say?The study pointed out that a diet low in asparagine or with the treatment of the enzyme asparaginase (which inhibits the assimilation of this amino acid), also reduced metastases in a group of mice for which an in vitro model was created . cancer.
The results of this study are not entirely new for the scientific community : it was already known that the asparaginase enzyme had an antineoplastic function, therefore antitumor, for those tumors whose cells proliferate in the presence of asparagine (for example in leukemias). But does this mean we can’t eat asparagus? Or that asparagus causes cancer?

Obviously not. For many reasons that have been explained by doctors these days, just in the face of a wave of panic among people who have read and misinterpreted the study.
First, the study was conducted in mice and not in humans. Second, asparagine is not the only amino acid that according to some studies can potentiate the spread of metastases in patients with cancer ( do not cause cancer : be careful!), Thus favoring the proliferation of the tumor. Nor is it the only substance to beware of. Other studies have been done for other amino acids, and, leaving aside amino acids, also for certain foods, for example foods with a high glycemic content, foods with a high fat content, etc. This makes us understand that there is no food that alone can give us a tumor, but in the extreme, an incorrect eating style can in the long run increase the risk of suffering from certain cancers. Just as there is no food that can make us heal from cancer.
Things are never that simple.
Secondly, asparagine is not only present in asparagus, but both in foods of plant origin (I mentioned potatoes, but also nuts have asparagine, legumes and soy too) and animal (from meat to eggs to fish. ): for this reason, doctors always recommend avoiding do-it-yourself and eating a diet that is as varied and complete as possible, because the exclusion of certain foods could have much more harmful effects on the body, especially for a cancer patient. Asparagine simply gets its name from asparagus, but it is present in many other foods. To exclude them all, it would mean depriving oneself of legumes, vegetables, tubers, nuts, meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, whole grains. Only fruit and vegetables apart from asparagus have a lower concentration.
In addition, the body itself produces asparagine.
Research has value only in experimenting with new drug treatments, and not in creating new food fears, or in inducing people to eat less asparagus or avoid all foods that contain asparagine.
What then, but how many asparagus do you eat? And do you eat them every day, by the pound?
To be clear, 180 grams of asparagus provide 0.3% asparagine , which is nonsense, not the dose of a poison.
Patients with particular molecular markers have been shown to produce more asparagine than normal and, in these patients, alternative drug therapy that reduces asparagine production may be useful against metastases.
So no more alarmism and no do it yourself.