Diet guide: red and blue fruits and vegetables as cancer fighters

A study by scientists in the United States has found that making certain fruits and vegetables rich in red, purple and blue natural pigments can have a strong anti-cancer effect These pigment compounds found in eggplant, red cabbage and blueberry can limit the growth of cancer cells, and in some cases can completely kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells The study combines laboratory tests of human cancer cells with animal experiments to see if pigment rich foods can affect the development of cancer in animals Foods with higher levels of natural pigments are the most effective in slowing down the growth of cancer cells In the experiment, purple corn and sago stopped the growth of colon cancer cells and killed 20% of these cancer cells Foods with less natural pigments, such as radishes, reduce the growth rate of colon cancer cells by 50% - 80% These findings help scientists uncover the essential ingredients that give fruits and vegetables their cancer fighting properties These pigments are antioxidants called anthocyanins Because pigments are not easily absorbed through the bloodstream, they travel through the stomach to the intestine, where they are absorbed by surrounding tissues Scientists believe that their ability to survive to the back of the intestine may be crucial for their anti-cancer effect Researchers led by Monica justi, a plant nutrition expert at Ohio State University, extracted anthocyanins from various fruits and vegetables with dark red, blue or purple colors and added them to test tubes containing human colon cancer cell suspensions When the team calculated how much extract was needed to reduce cancer growth by 50%, they found that Anthocyanins Extracted from purple corn were the most effective North American Shaguo and European blueberry are also very effective, while the anthocyanin content of radish needs 9 times of the former two to achieve the same effect In the second experiment, mice with colon cancer were fed a diet containing Anthocyanins Extracted from blueberries and sago Compared with another control group of mice that did not receive anthocyanin, the colon cancer tumors in the feeding group were reduced by 60% - 70% "All fruits and vegetables rich in anthocyanins have compounds that inhibit colon cancer cells," says justi