BERRIES: A REALLY BIG DEAL!!!

Please read to the end, and view the video for beneficial  effects of berries for preventing cancer.
Recently I went to OSU's Fruit and Vegetable School. Chris asked what the biggest thing I learned was. All sorts of stuff rolled around in my head, but the one thing I said was, "I now know the difference between raspberries and blackberries!"

I've always wanted to know the difference! That was a big deal. But then, after I got home and went to OSU's online research on berries, what I found out was an even BIGGER BIG DEAL!!!

At the fruit & veggie training, besides F&V varieties, I learned about environmentally sound approaches to unwanted grasses and weeds, pests, and I learned about some new biodegradable mulches. They also taught us some grafting techniques.
Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da. But good stuff to know if you want to garden. And I do. Thank you, Ned Barkema, Brad Bergefurd, Jim Jasinski, and Gary Gao!

But it was BERRIES that stuck in my head!

So I looked up some more OSU info on berries. In 2010, OSU berry research with rodents revealed this:

In a 2010 study (funded through the U.S. Senate, by the way), freeze dried berries fed to rodents inhibited oral, esophageal, and colon cancers in these rodents! The carcinogens were actually stopped from causing DNA damage to cells. The next OSU study will be on the effect of berries on skin and cervical cancers. A huge THANK YOU to the researchers!!!


Here's the latest since the 2010 study with a truly compelling video:
http://cancer.osu.edu/mediaroom/releases/Pages/Common-Berries-Fight-Cancer-As-Well-As-Exotic-Varieties.aspx

Obviously, they're on to something that's a REALLY BIG DEAL! So please, eat your berries! Blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, elderberries, all of them and more! Enjoy!!! FYI, they contain vitamins A, C, E and selenium, ellagic acid and anthocyanins (attributing to their color).


Question: What's the difference between a raspberry and a blackberry?
Answer: Here's one easy way to tell the difference. Both berries grow on a receptacle, a little white puff similar to the end of a Q-tip. When you pick a blackberry, this receptacle pulls off with the berry. On the other hand, when you pick a  raspberry, this receptacle stays on the berry vine.


Thanks to the researchers:
Dr. Gary Stoner conducted the most resent research along with Li-Shu Wang, Claire Seguin, Claudio Rocha, Kristen Stoner, Steven Chiu and A. Douglas Kinghorn.
Direct from their website:
The berries used in the study were provided by Dale Stokes of the Stokes Raspberry Farm in Wilmington, Ohio, (black and red raspberries); Erin Theony and the Washington State Raspberry Commission (red raspberries); Watershed Foods, Gridley, Ill., (blueberries); Driscoll Farms of Watsonville, Calif., (strawberries) and Dr. William J. Keller of Nature’s Sunshine, Inc., Spanish Fork, Utah, (noni, acaí and wolfberries).

This study was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the United States Department of Agriculture through the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (cancer.osu.edu) is one of only 40 Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States designated by the National Cancer Institute. Ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the top 20 cancer hospitals in the nation, The James is the 180-bed adult patient-care component of the cancer program at The Ohio State University. The OSUCCC-James is one of only seven funded programs in the country approved by the NCI to conduct both Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.