Apples and breast cancer

[Guest guest]

from /Bottom Line's Daily Health News/

 

*Apples Fight Breast Cancer*

 

An apple a day may not only keep the doctor away -- new

research shows

that it may specifically be helpful in protecting against

breast cancer.

 

At Cornell University's department of food science and

Institute for

Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, researchers

randomly divided

rats treated with a known mammary carcinogen into different

groups,

feeding them either low, middle or high doses of Red

Delicious apple

extracts (the equivalent of one, three and six apples a day

in humans,

respectively) or a control extract. Rats fed the strongest

apple extract

experienced the lowest cancer rate (40% developed cancer)...

followed by

the group fed middle-strength extract (43%)... and the

lowest strength

extract (59%). In comparison, 71% of those fed the

apple-free control

extract developed mammary cancer over the 24-week study

period. The

study appeared in the December 10, 2008, online edition of

/Journal of

Agricultural and Food Chemistry/.

 

WHAT'S THE SECRET?

 

According to researcher Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, associate

professor of

food science at Cornell University, the study demonstrated

not only that

apple extracts effectively inhibited the growth of mammary

tumors in the

rats but that the more administered, the greater the

anticancer effect.

" Not only did animals treated with apple extract have fewer

tumors

overall, the tumors were smaller, less likely to be

malignant and grew

more slowly when compared with tumors in the untreated

animals, " he said.

 

Why are apples so powerful against breast cancer, I

wondered? Dr. Liu

explained to me that apples are one of the best sources of

phenolics and

flavonoids, which are phytochemicals (bioactive compounds)

that have

powerful antioxidant and anti-proliferative (antigrowth)

effects in the

body. In two previous studies, Dr. Liu and his colleagues

discovered

that phytochemicals from apples effectively inhibited the

growth of

human breast cancer cells. In another study, Dr. Liu found that

phytochemicals from apple peels inhibited an important

inflammation

pathway, NFkB, in human breast cancer cells, thereby

reducing the

proliferation of the cancer.

 

Dr. Liu told me that although other fruits and vegetables

also contain

phenolics and flavonoids, apples are one of the best dietary

sources of

fruit phenolics. In fact, of the top 25 fruits consumed in

the US,

apples provide 33% of the phenolics that Americans consume

annually.

" Americans love to eat apples, so it makes sense to

encourage them as

part of a balanced diet for optimal health, " he said, adding

that this

doesn't mean anyone should forsake other fruits and

vegetables. " It's

clear that regular consumption of fruits, vegetables and

whole grains

can help to prevent chronic diseases, such as heart disease

and cancer, "

Dr. Liu said.

 

Source(s):

 

Rui Hai Liu, MD, PhD, is an associate professor in the

department of

food science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York