Do organic strawberries block human cancer cell growth in a petri dish more than conventional berries?
Cancer-Fighting Berries
4/5 - (17 votes)
Admittedly, this ranking of foods simply by antioxidant level is an oversimplification. As reviewed recently in the Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences: “From Beans to Berries and Beyond: Teamwork between Plant Chemicals for Protection of Optimal Health.” Not only may phytonutrients work together; many have healthful properties beyond just their antioxidant power. For example, berries have antiproliferative effects on cancer cells—they can slow down cancer growth. These are the cervical cancer cells that killed this woman, Henrietta Lacks, 58 years ago, and they’re still growing, still multiplying, nearly six decades later. And adding an extract of blueberries to her cancer cells doesn’t seem to matter much. The cancer cells are still steaming away at about 100% growth.
But look what these other fruits can do. Raspberries cut the growth in half, and strawberries blocked cancer growth by almost 75%. And the higher the strawberry dose, the more the cancer is inhibited. But which works better, conventional strawberries or organic strawberries? At every single concentration, and in every single variety, organic beat out conventional. Remember, lower growth is better. And this was for both human colon cancer cells, and human breast cancer cells.
We don’t have to necessarily eat the berries themselves for their benefits; we can eat the liver, eyes, or brains of berry-fed pigs. But, I’d stick with the berries.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.
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- L. G. Wood, M. L. Garg, H. Powell, and P. G. Gibson. Lycopene-rich treatments modify noneosinophilic airway in ammation in asthma: Proof of concept. Free Radic. Res., 42(1):94-102, 2008.
- M. A. Lila. From beans to berries and beyond: Teamwork between plant chemicals for protection of optimal human health. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1114:372-380, 2007.
- J Agric Food Chem. 2008 May 14;56(9):3016-23. Epub 2008 Apr 16. Berry extracts exert different antiproliferative effects against cervical and colon cancer cells grown in vitro. McDougall GJ, Ross HA, Ikeji M, Stewart D.
- W. Kalt, J. B. Blumberg, J. E. McDonald, M. R. Vinqvist-Tymchuk, S. A. E. Fillmore, B. A. Graf, J. M. O'Leary, and P. E. Milbury. Identication of anthocyanins in the liver, eye, and brain of blueberry-fed pigs. J. Agric. Food. Chem., 56(3):705-712, 2008.
Admittedly, this ranking of foods simply by antioxidant level is an oversimplification. As reviewed recently in the Annals of the NY Academy of Sciences: “From Beans to Berries and Beyond: Teamwork between Plant Chemicals for Protection of Optimal Health.” Not only may phytonutrients work together; many have healthful properties beyond just their antioxidant power. For example, berries have antiproliferative effects on cancer cells—they can slow down cancer growth. These are the cervical cancer cells that killed this woman, Henrietta Lacks, 58 years ago, and they’re still growing, still multiplying, nearly six decades later. And adding an extract of blueberries to her cancer cells doesn’t seem to matter much. The cancer cells are still steaming away at about 100% growth.
But look what these other fruits can do. Raspberries cut the growth in half, and strawberries blocked cancer growth by almost 75%. And the higher the strawberry dose, the more the cancer is inhibited. But which works better, conventional strawberries or organic strawberries? At every single concentration, and in every single variety, organic beat out conventional. Remember, lower growth is better. And this was for both human colon cancer cells, and human breast cancer cells.
We don’t have to necessarily eat the berries themselves for their benefits; we can eat the liver, eyes, or brains of berry-fed pigs. But, I’d stick with the berries.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- L. G. Wood, M. L. Garg, H. Powell, and P. G. Gibson. Lycopene-rich treatments modify noneosinophilic airway in ammation in asthma: Proof of concept. Free Radic. Res., 42(1):94-102, 2008.
- M. A. Lila. From beans to berries and beyond: Teamwork between plant chemicals for protection of optimal human health. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1114:372-380, 2007.
- J Agric Food Chem. 2008 May 14;56(9):3016-23. Epub 2008 Apr 16. Berry extracts exert different antiproliferative effects against cervical and colon cancer cells grown in vitro. McDougall GJ, Ross HA, Ikeji M, Stewart D.
- W. Kalt, J. B. Blumberg, J. E. McDonald, M. R. Vinqvist-Tymchuk, S. A. E. Fillmore, B. A. Graf, J. M. O'Leary, and P. E. Milbury. Identication of anthocyanins in the liver, eye, and brain of blueberry-fed pigs. J. Agric. Food. Chem., 56(3):705-712, 2008.
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Title
Cancer-Fighting Berries
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
More on berries and cancer prevention:
Black Raspberries versus Oral Cancer
Best Berries
Strawberries versus Esophageal Cancer
Anti-Angiogenesis: Cutting Off Tumor Supply Lines
For more context, check out my associated blog posts: Breast Cancer and Diet, How Chemically Contaminated Are We? and Strawberries Can Reverse Cancer Progression.
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