Healthy foods halt leukemia in small children: bananas, oranges and turmeric

This may be due to the vitamin C found in oranges and the antioxidants present in both fruits that protect DNA from environmental pollution and other factors that can lead to leukemia. In addition, it was found that turmeric, an ingredient found in curry spice, may offer a similar benefit of preventing leukemia.

• Giving infants oranges and bananas regularly may halve their risk of developing childhood leukaemia, suggest the results of a new study.
• And a diet containing the curry spice turmeric may also be protective -- accounting for the differences in childhood leukaemia rates between east and west -- says a leading scientist.
• Children who ate oranges, orange juice or bananas between four to six times a week during their first two years of life had a significantly reduced risk of developing the cancer, revealed the observational study by US researchers.
• Previous studies on childhood leukaemias have not examined the effects of the overall diet in this way, focusing more on possible risk foods like cured meats.
• "Our study is unique, and we have elucidated a significant protective association with the consumption of oranges, bananas and orange juice," says Marilyn Kwan, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
• However, she cautions that without carrying out a randomised controlled trial, it is difficult to predict exactly how protective eating these fruits may be, or to make firm public health recommendations.
• Nine food groups were discussed, including: hotdogs, hamburgers, vegetables, apples and grapes, oranges and bananas, and carbonated drinks.
• Two previous studies have found that eating cured meats like hotdogs or luncheon meats increased the risk of brain tumours and, to a lesser extent, leukaemia in children.
• Oranges and bananas may protect against childhood leukaemia because they are a rich source of vitamin C, which is an antioxidant.
• Turmeric may also protect against childhood leukaemia, suggests Moolky Nagabhushan, a cancer research scientist at Loyola University Medical Centre in Chicago, US.
• He and colleagues in India have shown protective effects of the yellow spice's main active component -- curcumin -- in a long-running series of studies.