Superfoods to fight cancer

Cabernet and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to new research. Take a look at other superfoods that help fight cancer.

Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at the Technology Entertainment Design Conference in Long Beach, California.

"We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,'' Li said. "What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.''

Li cited a Harvard Medical School study showing that men who ate cooked tomatoes several times weekly were 30 to 50 per cent less likely to have prostate cancer.

The foundation pitted some foods against approved drugs and found that soy, parsley, red grapes, berries and other comestibles were either as effective or more potent in battling cancer cells.

Eaten together, the foods were even more effective in fighting cancer. "We discovered that Mother Nature laced a large number of foods and herbs with anti-angiogenesis features,'' Li said.

"For many people around the world, dietary cancer treatment may be the only solution because not everyone can afford cancer drugs.'' he said.

In one small clinical trial, researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center found that combining eight ounces (230 milliliters) of grapefruit juice with the promising anti-cancer medicine rapamycin could increase the amount of that drug in the blood.

Doctors have long argued that grapefruit juice should not be taken with medications because it can interfere with enzymes that break down certain drugs. "Grapefruit juice can increase blood levels of certain drugs three to five times," said study director Ezra Cohen, MD, a cancer specialist at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

A second study presented at the conference found that walnut consumption could provide the body with essential Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and phytosterols that reduce the risk of breast cancer.

"Walnuts are better than cookies, French fries or potato chips when you need a snack," said Elaine Hardman, associate professor of medicine at Marshall University School of Medicine, who conducted her research on laboratory mice.

Researcher Xuesong Han, a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Public Health, analyzed data about 546 women with lymph node cancer and found that those who drank wine had a 76 percent five-year survival rate compared with 68 percent for non-wine drinkers.

Additional research found that the five-year, disease-free survival rate was 70 percent among those who drank wine, compared with 65 percent among non-wine drinkers.

One of the most helpful food families includes cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale and cabbage. In fact, eating broccoli regularly has been linked to lower rates of prostate, colon, breast, lung and skin cancers.

In that super food, glucosinolates (GSs) and the substances that are left when GSs are broken down can boost the levels of a broccoli enzyme that helps rid the body of carcinogens.