Cancer Killer: Grapes

A grape is the non-climacteric fruit that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine and grape seed oil.

Compounds such as resveratrol (a polyphenol antioxidant) have been discovered in grapes and these have been positively linked to fighting cancer, heart disease, degenerative nerve disease and other ailments. Synthesized by many plants, resveratrol apparently serves antifungal and other defensive properties. Dietary resveratrol has been shown to modulate the metabolism of lipids and to inhibit oxidation of low-density lipoproteins and aggregation of platelets.

Since the 1980s, biochemical and medical studies have demonstrated powerful antioxidant properties of grape seed oligomeric proanthocyanidins. Together with tannins, polyphenols and polyunsaturated fatty acids, these seed constituents display inhibitory activities against several experimental disease models, including cancer, heart failure and other disorders of oxidative stress. Grape seed oil from crushed seeds is used for many perceived health benefits.


The "Grape Cancer Cure"?
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/cancer-healing-greatest-hits.html


Johanna Brandt Grape Cure For Cancer
http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/GrapeCure.html


Study: Grapes inhibit cancer growth
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9701/10/grapes.cancer/index.html


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Cancer Killer: Cranberry

Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the genus Vaccinium subgenus Oxycoccus, or in some treatments, in the distinct genus Oxycoccus. They are found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere.

Cranberries are low, creeping shrubs or vines up to 2 m long and 5 to 20 cm in height, with slender, wiry stems, not thickly woody, and small evergreen leaves. The flowers are dark pink, with very distinct reflexed petals, leaving the style and stamens fully exposed and pointing forward. They are pollinated by domestic honey bees. The fruit is a berry that is larger than the leaves of the plant; it is initially white, but turns a deep red when fully ripe. It is edible, with an acidic taste that can overwhelm its sweetness.

Cranberries are a major commercial crop in certain US states and Canadian provinces. Most cranberries are processed into products such as juice, sauce, and sweetened dried cranberries, with the remainder sold fresh to consumers. Cranberry sauce is regarded an indispensable part of traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving menus and European winter festivals.

Since the early 21st century within the global functional food industry, there has been a rapidly growing recognition of cranberries for their consumer product popularity, nutrient content and antioxidant qualities, giving them commercial status as a novel "superfruit".

Cranberry compound found to block cancer
http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?n=63231-cranberry-cancer-proanthocyanidin


Press Releases - University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
UMass Dartmouth researcher identifies cancer-fighting cranberry compound
http://www.umassd.edu/communications/articles/showarticles.cfm?a_key=469


Influence of cranberry on cancer.
Cranberry phytochemical could reduce the growth of human breast cancer cells partly as a result of initiation of apoptosis and the arrest of the G1 cell .http://www.phytochemicals.info/abstracts/cranberry-anti-cancer.php

Cancer Killer: Blueberry

Blueberries are flowering plants in the genus Vaccinium, sect. Cyanococcus. The species are native only to North America. They are shrubs varying in size from 10 cm tall to 4 m tall; the smaller species are known as "lowbush blueberries", and the larger species as "highbush blueberries". The leaves can be either deciduous or evergreen, ovate to lanceolate, and from 1-8 cm long and 0.5-3.5 cm broad. The flowers are bell-shaped, white, pale pink or red, sometimes tinged greenish.

The fruit is a berry 5-16 mm diameter with a flared "crown" at the end; they are pale greenish at first, then reddish-purple, and finally dark purple on ripening. They have a sweet taste when mature, with variable acidity. Blueberries are one of only a few human foods that are naturally colored blue. Blueberry bushes typically bear fruit from May through October; "blueberry season" peaks in July, which is National Blueberry Month in the United States and Canada.

All species whose English common names include "blueberry" are currently classified in section Cyanococcus of the genus Vaccinium. Several other plants of the genus Vaccinium also produce blue berries which are sometimes confused with blueberries, mainly the predominantly European bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), which in many languages has a name that means "blueberry" in English. See the Identification section for more information.

Although blueberries are native to North America, they are now grown also in Australia, New Zealand and South American countries, and are air-shipped as fresh produce to markets around the world.

Beginning in 2005, blueberries have been discussed among a category of functional foods called superfruits having the favorable combination of nutrient richness, antioxidant strength, emerging research evidence for health benefits and versatility for manufacturing popular consumer products.

New research findings concluded that Wild Blueberry compounds have the potential to attack all stages of cancer -- initiation, promotion and proliferation. (Source: Journal of Food Science, 70(3):S159-S166, 2005.) According to the study, different types of Wild Blueberry phenolic compounds are active during different stages of cancer, resulting in a broad spectrum of potential cancer-fighting benefits.
http://www.newstarget.com/006993.html


Laboratory studies published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry show that phenolic compounds in blueberries can inhibit colon cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death).
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=8


US scientists report that blueberry extracts inhibited the growth of liver cancer cells in the lab, potentially adding to the growing list of health benefits for the 'superfood'.
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=67978-blueberries-anthocyanins-cancer