Berry Bonanza

A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism revealed that of all the stories covered by the media in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, a whopping 25 percent of the stories were about the eight-time gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps (next was U.S. Gymnast Nastia Liukin; 4 percent of Olympic stories were about her).

If the Project for Excellence in Journalism were to do a similar story on what food the media mentions the most, I have a sneaking suspicion berries would top the chart.

This is not without justification, mind you. Berries – particularly blueberries – are one of the best things you can possibly eat, chockfull of vitamins, minerals and the highly sought after antioxidants that rid the body of those toxic free radicals.

With all that said, how about another story on berries to whet the whistles of the health-a-razzi? After all, when it comes to health, the more something is covered, the more we get to know about it. We can then discern for ourselves whether or not we should adopt it into our lifestyle.

Virtually all fruits (and vegetables) have at least one kind of health-promoting compound that inhibits the formation of genetic mutations that often become cancerous. But a select few have multiple compounds. The multiplicity of compounds found in berries is therefore a multifaceted fruit – it tastes good, goes well in fruit smoothies and protects against various cancerous genetic mutations, not just one or two.

How do we know this? From researchers, of course! Not just any researchers, though…researchers from THE Ohio State University (Go Buckeyes!) and their Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Lead by principal researcher Gary D. Stoner, the OSU team injected a portion of two group of rats with a strain of cancer that’s too long to spell and too difficult to say (for those curious, its N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine). These injections caused significant mutations in the rats’ esophageal tissue. So much so, in fact, that nearly 2,300 of their genes were changed by 50 percent or more, according to the researchers!

The only difference between the two groups of rats was the diet they were consuming. One of the groups’ diets consisted of freeze-dried black raspberries. Researchers say freeze drying black raspberries increases the potency of their vitamins, minerals and polyphenols.

Here’s what the researchers found: When compared to the group that did not consume the black raspberry powder, 1/5th of their once cancerous-affected genes actually returned to normal! One-fifth is quite a bit, but there’d likely be a greater proportion of genes returning to normal if the group’s overall diet had more black raspberry; as it was, only 5 percent of it was black raspberry.

This finding suggests to researchers that at the very least, black raspberries are particularly effective at slowing the onset of developing cancer. The goal, of course, is to seek out other foods with just as many anti-cancer compounds capable of attacking mutations with as much resiliency and efficacy as that of the black raspberry.

Thanks to the tirelessness with which the media and the scientific world cover and analyze the berry, you and I are the beneficiaries of this knowledge. If only we could glean similarly useful information from all the other stories bathed in the media’s glare.