Cancer
Apples fight breast cancer
By John Roberts, Ph.D.
Mar 12, 2005 - 10:50:00 AM

A study conducted by Dr. Rui-Hai Liu and colleagues at Cornell University suggested that eating apples may reduce the risk of breast cancer in humans.

The study was conducted on lab rats that were pre-treated with mammary carcinogens. The lab rats were fed daily an amount of either whole apple extracts or control extracts that were equivalent to one, three, and six apples for humans. The trial lasted for 24 weeks.

The study found that the number of tumors was reduced by 25, 25 and 61 percent in the three groups of rats that received the amount of apple extracts. The dose-response effect is such that the more apples the rats received, the fewer tumors they developed.

In a previous study published in the journal Nature, Dr Liu and his colleagues credited antioxidative phytochemicals in fresh apples with inhibiting human liver and colon cancer cell growth.

Fruits and vegetables contain thousands of phytochemicals different in molecular size, polarity and solubility that can be absorbed and distributed in different cells, tissues and organs. All these phytochemicals work together in a way called food synergy.

Because of the complexity and synergy of the natural phytochemicals, the researchers suggested that the antioxidative and anticancer activities from phytochemicals from fruits and vegetables can not be found in dietary supplements.

The study will appear later this month in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.