Peru Ground Cherries could be among the most potent fruity anti-cancer agents nature has to offer. |
Keep in mind, while the fruits can kill cancer in the petri dish you would be asking too much if you expect to cure existing cancer by just eating one or to servings of the top items on the list below per day. In conjunction with the nutrition & exercise tips you receive on the SuppVersity every day, they may yet contribute their share to render you "cancer proof".
Instead of telling you what I thought were the most remarkable results I did thus decide to simply confront you with the complete data marking every value that is at least 60% above the mean + one standard deviation in green and ordering the data by the mean protective effect against the three different cancer types (lung, breast, liver, colon cancer) the researchers have tested for.
If you just take a cursory look at the data, the most striking observation the scientists made is unquestionably, the overall potency of the fruit polyphenols. What you have to keep in mind though is that we are talking about in-vitro studies and direct exposure to dosages of 50.09–141.79 mg/mL, as they were necessary to actually kill breast cancer cells are probably something you will never achieve no matter how many Peru ground cherries you eat. With the latter being among the most potent fruity anti-cancer "meds" we have, it is obvious that the question we will still have to answer pertains to the effects of actually eating any of these items.
It appears out of question that it's not going to hurt you. It should also be obvious that eating a packed of cherries is not going to rid you of existing cancerous growth. On the other hand, there is already plenty of evidence that
- cherries (in this case tart cherries) administered in an extract form, can reduce the risk of colon cancer in rodent models (Kang. 2003)
- polyphenol-rich cloudy apples juices can protect against gastric diseases associated with cancer formation (Graziani. 2005)
Bottom line: While consuming high amounts of these anti-cancer fruits will have a plethora of health benefits, which will eventually protect you from cancer in all parts of your body, using them as a druglike medicine in our "war against cancer" would warrant extraction and isolation procedures that allow us to apply them in high concentrations to certain parts of our bodies.
I would bet money that all of the "superfruits" in the list above, also help to avoid prostate cancer |
References:
- Graziani G, D'Argenio G, Tuccillo C, Loguercio C, Ritieni A, Morisco F, Del Vecchio Blanco C, Fogliano V, Romano M. Apple polyphenol extracts prevent damage to human gastric epithelial cells in vitro and to rat gastric mucosa in vivo. Gut. 2005 Feb;54(2):193-200.
- Kang SY, Seeram NP, Nair MG, Bourquin LD. Tart cherry anthocyanins inhibit tumor development in Apc(Min) mice and reduce proliferation of human colon cancer cells. Cancer Lett. 2003 May 8;194(1):13-9.
- Khandelia R, Jaiswal A, Ghosh SS, Chattopadhyay A. Gold Nanoparticle-Protein Agglomerates as Versatile Nanocarriers for Drug Delivery. Small. 2013 Feb 27.
- Li F, Li S, Li HB, Deng GF, Ling WH, Wu S, Xu XR, Chen F. Antiproliferative activity of peels, pulps and seeds of 61 fruits. Journal of Functional Foods. 20 May 2013.