Dark-colored vegetables and fruits may help defend against a cancerous colon, new research shows.

Experiments on human cells that are cancerous and on rats lead scientists to believe that anthocyanins, which are the substances that give fruits and vegetables a strong red, blue, or purple color, may slow cellular fermentation or rotting from 50 to 80 percent.
“All fruits and vegetables that are rich in anthocyanins have compounds that can slow down the growth of colon cancer cells in experiments in laboratory dishes and possibly inside the body,” said Monica Giusti, lead author of the new study and assistant professor of food science at Ohio State University.

Which ones have the strongest effect?

Pigments from purple cabbage and blackcurrant not only stopped cancerous growth, but in addition transformed about 20 percent of the cancerous cells while leaving healthy cells alone. When rats with a cancerous colon were fed anthocyanin extracts from chokeberries and bilberries, signs of tumors were reduced 60 to 70 percent.

While it’s not going to hurt anyone to include dark fruits and vegetables in their daily diet and will probably help for a number of nutritional reasons, Giusti emphasized that the new study is still preliminary in regard to the chemical structure of the 600 different anthocyanins found in nature.

“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding how the body absorbs and uses these different structures,” she said.

According to Dr. Robert O. Young, a research scientist at the pH Miracle Center suggests, “pro-anthocyanins are some of the best chelators or buffers of dietary and metabolic acids. Pro-anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants helping to maintain the alkalinity of the body fluids and thus protecting the cells from premature fermentation. Pro-anthocyanins are found in great abundance in all of the dark green, blue, and purple fruits and vegetables.”

Dr. Young has created a powerful formulation of dark colored super fruits called “pHruits” for providing a concentration of pro-anthocyanidins