You’ve heard the “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” line since you were a wee young lad. But that old school time rhyme may need some re-wording – and re-apportioning – after tests show that apples can potentially save a woman from breast cancer risk…and the more eaten the better.

In short, forget one apple a day – two or three sounds more like it!

According to researchers from Cornell University, the chemical compounds found in apples significantly diminishes the size of cancerous tumors that form on the breast, in effect siphoning away the size of these tumors, depending on how many apples were used.

Not unlike most initial studies, rats were used as specimens for observation. The researchers broke up the rats into several groups, and gave each group an allotted amount of apple extract. Some were given about the equivalent of a medium-sized apple, others the rough equivalent of 3 apples, and the remaining were given the rough equivalent of six apples.

They also injected the rats with a virulent strain of adenocarcinoma, the kind of cancer that almost always originates in the glands. Adenocarcinomas are to blame for the brunt of breast cancer-related deaths, but they’re also linked to other deadly cancers, like lung cancer (the leading cause of cancer-related deaths) and colon cancer (the second or third leading cause of cancer, depending on the source).

The researchers came away with some pretty amazing findings, the most exciting one being this: the number of apples eaten seemed to dictate whether or not tumors formed. For instance, those who ate the fewest number of apples per day, tumors formed in 57 percent of cases. But for those who ate six apples a day? Cancer growth was found in only 23 percent of cases!

Here’s one instance where more is more!

Now I’m not suggesting that you go out and eat six apples a day to help beat back breast cancer risk. But the finding itself is very exciting, if for nothing else than the fact that it’s a really easy – and tasty – way of reducing your risk of breast cancer.

So whatever the apple is – Red Delicious or Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or Garden Royale – follow in Adam and Eve’s footsteps…partake of the forbidden fruit (thankfully, forbidden no longer)!

Postscript: Did You Know?

…China is the leading producer of apples (the United States ranks second)?

…Washington State is the leading producer of apples in the U.S. (New York ranks second)?

…That there are 2500 varieties of apples grown in the U.S. alone (7500 around the world)?

…That apples are the second most profitable fruit grown in the U.S. (oranges are first)?

…That the average consumer ate about 17 pounds worth of apples in 2005?

Sources
Natural News
University of Illinois Extension