Pomegranates prove to be beneficial in preventing breast cancer cells from metastasizing in laboratory study.

Have you been on Facebook lately (are you even on Facebook?  If not, get on there, and add me as a “friend”)?  If so, you’ve probably noticed a lot of people writing colors into their status updates.  “Red,” “white,” “blue.”

This isn’t your friends proclaiming their affinity for patriotic colors, but rather announcing to their fellow Facebookers what color of bra their wearing.

Really.

It’s done in an effort to spread the word about breast cancer awareness, which millions of people commemorate every October with walks, jogs and fundraisers.

But if your friends on Facebook were really “aware,” they’d be updating their status with the word “pomegranate.”  Because a new study published in Cancer Prevention Research says that pomegranate juice can stop the growth of breast cancer tumors dead in their tracks.

As with other fruits and vegetables high in antioxidants, pomegranates’ high antioxidant content is the curative quality for breast cancer prevention.  They discovered this after interacting 10 different types of compounds found in ellagitannins with cancer cells in laboratory tests.  All of the compounds contributed to the inhibition of the cancer cells’ growth, but one in particular—urolithin B—was especially effective.  Urolithin is a metabolite that derives from ellagitannins.

Ellagitannins are found in abundance in a number of fruits and vegetables like cranberries and strawberries.  They’re also found in the nut family—particularly walnuts and pecans.  But the best source for ellagitannins (which is the same thing as ellagic acid, or what ellagitannins are converted to in the body) is raspberries.  One cup of raspberries has about 40 milligrams of ellagitannins.

The study was conducted by researchers from the City of Hope Research Hospital in the facility’s Division of Tumor Cell Biology.

More studies on ellagitannins’ ability to stall or block the growth of breast cancer cells are in the offing.  Perhaps future studies will involve raspberries.  Considering they’re the richest source of ellagitannins, one would think they’d be just as—if not more—effective than pomegranates.

In the meantime, be very wary of ellagitannin supplements.  There are loads of them on the market, all of them trying to upstage their competitors.  I need to perform my own review on what elligitannins supplements (if any) are best.  So stay tuned for that.

Until then, stick with all-natural food sources for high quality ellagitannin content.

Sources:
ellagic.net
webmd.com
webmd.com
vitapurity.com