Strawberries advocated to prevent cancer

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 24

Strawberries advocated to prevent cancer

By

DOLORES KONG

NZPA-KRN Daytona . : ! H Beach, ! j )i Florida' Eating strawberries, cherries, j! apples or grapes may help keep cancer |j away, a researcher has reported. But don’t go out and buy bushels of fruit yet. Gary Stoner, of the medical college of Ohio in Toledo, said he had been researching the ability of an acid found naturally in those fruits to tie up cancer-causing molecules and prevent them from causing genetic damage. Although he acknowledged that his research was preliminary, he concluded his presentation at the American Cancer Society meeting by flash-

ing a slide of a huge ripe strawberry on the screen, with the words, “Eat me for health.” H (Ellagic acid can also be found in: raspberries, plums, cranberries, loganberries, blackberries, nuts and wine. Hl . J The molecular makeup of the acid appears able to hook up with carcinogenic compounds found in tobacco smoke, for example. ■ I | While these fruits have the cancer-preventing acid, the body does not absorb ”it very well, Stoner said. Also,) for the acid to prevent cancer, it has to be present when I the carcinogen is introduced into the body, he I said. The acid could not make up for years of . smoking.

Stoner said he! was investigating further how ellagic' acid was metabolised, the possibility of a synthetic relative (that the- body could absorb better ' and what either foods might have i the acid. ’ . . ]: | • Most of his research mopey comes from | the National Cancer Institute but said some of it came from strawberry growers. While he said he (could not recommend eating strawberries as a certain way to prevent cancer, Stoner; made this recommepdation for those (who want to try it: of the ellagic acid of strawberries is in the; pulp ; and not the juice, so you have to eat the whole strawberry.”