Forget “an apple a day” and opt for “an onion a day” if you’re trying to cut your odds of developing pancreatic cancer. German scientists have found that eating an onion daily may deter the deadly disease, but apples may not.
Ute N?thlings, Ph.D. of the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke and colleagues studied dietary information on more than 215,000 people. They looked for possible links between flavonols, chemicals found in fruits and vegetables that scientists believe help fight cancer, and the risk of pancreatic cancer.
They studied the intake of three types of flavonols – quercetin (found in onions and apples), kaempferol (found in spinach), and myricetin ( found in red onions and berries) as well as total flavonols consumed.
While total intake of flavonols was found to lower the risk of pancreatic cancer, onions and black tea seemed to be the most effective.
Smoking is the only recognized risk for pancreatic cancer, and smokers in the study who ate high amounts of flavonols had their risk for cancer reduced the most. “The effect was largest in smokers, presumably because they are at increased pancreatic risk already,” said Dr. N?thlings.
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