Citric Fruits - A Healthy Food

New studies suggested once again that citric fruits including oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits help fight cancer, high cholesterol, and obesity.

Studies both at Texas A&M University and Kanazawa Medical University in Japan showed that compounds in citric fruits can help reduce the risk of colon cancer. Researchers at Texas A&M University found that freeze-dried grapefruit, similar to the whole grapefruit, can reduce the incidence of early colon cancer lesions in animals. The Japanese researchers found anti-colon cancer properties in nobiletin - a compound found in tangerines.

Grapefruit can also reduce the risk of cancer caused by smoking. A study on the cancer prevention was done by the researchers at the University of Hawaii. The researchers found that drinking 6 ounces of grapefruit juice a day reduces the activity of a liver enzyme that is thought to activate toxic chemicals in the smoke.

On another front, scientists from the USDA and a Canadian company isolated a compound - polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) - from orange and tangerine peels that can actually lower cholesterol in animals. They found that use of food containing 1% PMFs can lower cholesterol by 32 to 40%.

Grapefruits also promote weight loss. Researchers at Scripps Clinic in San Diego found that grapefruit may trigger weight loss by lowering insulin levels, an excess of which is linked to weight gain. Effect of grapefruits on weight loss was confirmed in humans. An early study by the same researchers confirmed that eating grapefruit or drinking juice with meal can help the obese lose weight.

Even the interaction of grapefruit juice with drugs, a bad trait for grapefruit, has been explored. Researchers at Texas A&M Citrus Center studied the interaction between grapefruit compounds and drugs in hopes that this interaction can be taken advantage of to increase bioavailability of drugs in humans.

These studies were presented in the American Chemical Society Annual Meeting being held in Pennsylvania during Aug. 22 through 26.

About The Author

John Roberts is a freelance writer for http://www.foodconsumer.com. This article was originally published at http://foodconsumer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1241

kontact@foodconsumer.com

In The News:

NASA flight engineer Kathleen "Kate" Rubins set out on her fourth career spacewalk on Friday, in an effort to ready the International Space Station (ISS) for solar array upgrades.

Astronauts from NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have embarked on the year's fourth spacewalk to service the International Space Station.

NASA is slated to announce what it says is a "series of firsts" in its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission.

A flutter of earthquakes shook Oregon's Mount Hood on Monday.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched 60 new Starlink satellites early Thursday morning.

An ancient Egyptian papyrus version of "Mummification for Dummies" has been revealed by a Danish Egyptologist as the oldest how-to guide yet found.

For the first time in history, astronomers have detected what they've deemed a "space hurricane" in Earth's upper atmosphere.

The asteroid Apophis, nicknamed the "God of Chaos," will pass by Earth on Friday.

Residents of the U.K. were surprised over the weekend when a slow-moving meteor blazed across the night sky.

A massive iceberg, larger than New York City, recently broke off from an ice shelf in Antarctica, according to researchers on Friday.

Citric Fruits - A Healthy Food

Weight Loss Weight Loss