08/31/07 Apples & Cancer

Apples & Cancer. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The secret of an apples medicinal power may be the peel. How appealing? Sorry, couldn't resist. Apples have always been known to be a healthy choice die to their antioxidants. Stacie Haaga is the Director of Consumer Health & Education for US Apple. HAAGA: Antioxidants are part of the phytochemical family and we've known that apples have concentrated amounts of them and Dr. Rui Hai Liu at Cornell wanted to find what part of the apple had the most antioxidants. Like many other fruits and vegetables, Dr. Liu found that the peel had the highest concentrations. Haaga says those are powerful antioxidants. HAAGA: Those antioxidants seem to have an impact on either killing or slowing the growth of three different types of cancer cells. Those cancer cells include colon, breast and liver cancers. Sort of gives a whole new meaning to an apple a day. Haaga says that Dr. Liu's advocates a whole food mentality meaning eating fresh fruits and vegetables is preferable to taking a pill. HAAGA: We've known that the peel also contains 2/3 of the fiber in apples as well so sometimes the fiber/antioxidant combination is really beneficial and you're not going to find that in a supplement form. And we know that the fiber also helps in cancer prevention. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.