You may remember a blog I posted a couple of weeks ago about orange juice containing natural compounds called limonoids that target and stop neuroblastoma cancer cells. In a similar vein, children who ate oranges and bananas or drank orange juice most days of the week before age 2 were significantly less likely than other children to be diagnosed with leukemia before age 14, according to new research.
The search for non-toxic alternatives to drugs is vital: More children prior to age 15 become sick from leukemia than from any other type of cancer.
Kids who ate oranges or bananas or drank orange juice four to six times a week were about half as likely to develop leukemia before age 14.
Another interesting finding: Eating hot dogs or lunch meats -- cured meats that contain substances that can become carcinogenic in the stomach -- had no influence on leukemia, perhaps because vitamin C, along with other vitamins contained in fruit, protect the body from the damage the meats can cause.
Again, I advise you to keep your kids away from orange juice, as it has about eight full teaspoons of fructose per 8-ounce glass. This fruit sugar is just as dangerous as regular table sugar since it will also cause a major increase in their insulin levels and can lead to overeating.
When your kids eat whole fruit, its fiber will moderate the release of fructose as well as insulin into the bloodstream.
Yahoo News December 16, 2004