Wednesday, December 22, 2010

healthy food : Apple Anti-Oxidant

healthy food : Apple Anti-Oxidant
Apples are one of the most popular and important fruits that grow on trees. Apple trees are a member of the rose family. There are hundreds of different apple varieties with colors of the fruit ranging from various shades of red to green and yellow. The flavor of apples also varies from tart to sweet. Apples are about 85 percent water and contain vitamins A and C, potassium, pectin, and fiber.
Over half the apples grown (two billion bushels throughout the world) are eaten fresh. The remainder are baked into pies and other dishes and are used to make apple butter, apple juice, applesauce, jelly, and wine. Apple juice may be further processed into vinegar. Most apple products are canned or bottled, dried, or frozen.
Something as simple and natural as a daily apple may help in the fight against breast cancer. According to research scientist Rui Hai Liu, M.D., Ph.D., of Cornell University, the results are favorable. His research program at Cornell University focuses on diet and cancer, and the effect of functional foods on chronic disease, cardiovascular disease, and aging.
In an interview with the American Federation for Aging Research, Liu said he and his colleagues were able to show that phytochemicals in fresh apples could greatly inhibit the growth of liver and colon cancer cells. Specifically, his research showed that 50 mg of apple extracts taken from the skins, inhibited colon cancer cells by 43 percent. And apple flesh extracts inhibited the colon cancer cells by 29 percent. The same dosage of apple extracts with skins, he said,inhibited liver cancer cells by 57 percent, and the extracts inhibited liver cancer cells by 40 percent.