Dark, Exotic Fruits Are Cancer-Fighting Agents

They say the darker the fruit, the sweeter the juice. Sweeter, that is, to your body in cancer prevention studies.

Studies on rats and human cells found that red, purple and blue fruits contained anthocyanins, which drastically reduce cancer cell growth or kill cancer cells.

The anthocyanins come from the dark color, researchers at the American Chemical Society said.

And to make matters more interesting, the more exotic the plant, the greater the amount of anthocyanins. Plants such as purplecorn and bilberry (American blue huckleberry) were the most potent.

Isolating anthocyanins is hard to do, though, so people are advised that very little of it is absorbed in the bloodstream. However it is absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract and may prevent cancer in those areas.