Eating three peaches a day could help people beat breast cancer, according to a new study. U.S. research found that treatments with peach extract inhibited the spread of breast cancer when tested on mice. 'Cancer cells were implanted under the skin of mice with an aggressive type of breast cancer cell, the MDA-MB-435, and what we saw was an inhibition of a marker gene in the lungs after a few weeks, indicating an inhibition of metastasis when the mice were consuming the peach extract,' Dr Luis Cisneros-Zevallos, a food scientist at Texas-based AgriLife Research, said in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. 'Furthermore, after determining the dose necessary to see the effects in mice, it was calculated that for humans it would be equivalent to consuming two to three peaches per day.' In the western hemisphere, breast cancer is the most common malignant disease for women, with officials estimating there there were more than 232,000 new cases in the U.S. last year. 'The importance of our findings are very relevant because it shows in vivo the effect that natural compounds, in this case the phenolic compounds in peach, have against breast cancer and metastasis,' Dr Luis Cisneros-Zevallos said. 'It gives opportunity to include in the diet an additional tool to prevent and fight this terrible disease that affects so many people. 'In general, peach fruit has chemical compounds that are responsible for killing cancer cells while not affecting normal cells, as we reported previously, and now we are seeing that this mixture of compounds can inhibit metastasis. 'We are enthusiastic about the idea that perhaps by consuming only two to three peaches a day we can obtain similar effects in humans. However, this will have to be the next step in the study for its confirmation.' Nutritionist Ian Marber said although the initial findings of the study were encouraging, he urged people to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables to get the best health results. 'You need to eat the whole fruit to get its full benefits, not just the juice, to get the fibre. 'Variety is very important but there is certainly no bad side to eating three peaches a day.' Dailymail
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