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2 March 2005
An Apple A Day Could Help Prevent Breast Cancer 
A diet with apples in it can help keep breast cancer away, say food scientists at Cornell University in an article appearing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. "We found that tumor incidence was reduced by 17, 39 and 44 percent in rats that were fed the human equivalent of one, three or six apples a day, respectively, over a period of 24 weeks," said Rui Hai Liu, lead author of the study. The researchers treated a group of rats with a known mammary carcinogen and then fed them either whole apple extracts or control extracts. Liu also found that the number of tumors was reduced by 25, 25 and 61 percent in rats fed, respectively, the equivalent of one, three or six apples a day. In the report, , Liu credits the phytochemicals, or antioxidants, in fresh apples with helping prevent cancer by mopping up cell-damaging free radicals and inhibiting the production of reactive substances that could damage normal cells. "Studies increasingly provide evidence that it is the additive and synergistic effects of the phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables that are responsible for their potent antioxidant and anticancer activities," Liu said. "Our findings suggest that consumers may gain more significant health benefits by eating more fruits and vegetables and whole grain foods than in consuming expensive dietary supplements, which do not contain the same array of balanced, complex components." Liu noted that the thousands of phytochemicals in foods vary in molecular size, polarity and solubility, which could affect how they are absorbed and distributed in different cells, tissues and organs. "This balanced natural combination of phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables cannot simply be mimicked by dietary supplements," he explained.
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