Comparing Apples and...Persimmons?
Whoever first came up with the old adage, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," really knew what they were talking about. Beyond the myriad health benefits that would have been apparent a century or so ago, apples have some extraordinary cancer-fighting abilities as well.
But if a new study by researchers in Israel is any indication, the cancer-fighting punch of the apple can't come close to that of another fruit-the persimmon.
The persimmon? Persimmons are still unknown to most people around the world, especially in this country. But, oddly enough, these reddish-orange fruits are actually native to the eastern United States. American persimmons can be found from Connecticut to Florida, and also throughout California. In stores, however, you will likely find the Asian Fuyu and Hachiya varieties because of their less-bittersweet flavor.
A team of researchers led by Shela Gorinstein, Ph.D. of Hebrew University in Jerusalem compared apples and persimmons for the their levels of fibers and minerals. Writing in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they found that both apples and persimmons-especially their peels-were particularly high in dietary fibers, minerals and antioxidants. Antioxidants have been shown to have a preventive effect on tumor cell proliferation.
But persimmons were clearly the superior fruit in terms of healthy benefits, they concluded.
And yet, even the authors don't anticipate a rush on persimmons in the near future.
Studies are continuing to proliferate touting the benefits of dozens of fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, however, an article by Italian researchers in the journal Epidemiology found that vegetables-when compared directly to fruits-are clearly more powerful in terms of cancer-fighting abilities.
Led by Silvia Franceschi of the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico in Aviano, Italy, the researchers compared 4,522 patients with breast, color or rectal cancer to 5,155 healthy controls. They found that vegetables conferred far more cancer protection than fruits.
In fact, raw carrots seemed to offer the greatest amount of protection. They found that those who ate four servings of raw carrots a week were 20 percent less likely to develop breast cancer and 30 percent less likely to develop colon or rectal cancer.
In the study, participants who consumed the highest amount of all kinds of raw vegetables-about 12 servings a week-had a 15 percent reduction in breast-cancer risk, a 26 percent reduction in colon cancer risk, and a 16 percent reduction in rectal cancer risk.
Among the different types of fruit, only apples, pears and kiwis were associated with risk reductions of at least 5 percent for all three cancer types, they concluded.
And yet, the omnipresent apple still has its advocates. In a recent study published in the journal Nature, Dr. Rui Hai Liu of Cornell University and colleagues pointed out that the many antioxidants contained in fresh apples-phenolic acids and flavonoids-seem to work in synergy to inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells.
The researchers used extracts from Red Delicious apples to treat colon cancer cells in vitro and found that "cell proliferation was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner after exposure to apple-extract concentrations above 20 mg/ml." They had similar success in tests with human liver tumor cells.
They found that colon cancer proliferation was inhibited 57 percent with extract containing apple skin, and 40 percent by extract not containing skin.
About one serving (100 g) of fresh apple provides antioxidant activity equal to that of 1,500 mg of vitamin C, Liu noted. Apples contain almost 100 phytochemicals, he added, which may explain their remarkable antioxidant punch.
If you are looking for more information on the various cancer and health-related benefits of fruits and vegetables-as well as information on other complementary treatments-a new database from the National Institutes of Health may help.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has joined with National Library of Medicine to create a massive database of literature on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
The free, web-based database offers access to more than 220,000 abstracts, references and full text articles. It can be accessed by going to National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine web site at www.nccam.nih.gov. Then click on CAM on PubMed, which is highlighted on the page. That goes directly to the special PubMed section for complementary and alternative medicines.
SOURCES:
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, February 1, 2001; American Chemical Society
Epidemiology, 1998; 9:338-341
Nature, June 22, 2000; 405:902-904
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health (http://www.nccam.nih.gov)
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