Fox News is reporting that researchers from the U.K.’s Institute of Food Research have discovered that jam and jelly may have cancer-fighting properties. These surprising findings derive from the use of pectin as the gelling agent of choice in the products. The researchers discovered that pectin, under specific conditions, releases a “molecular fragment” that binds with galectin 3 (gal3), a protein that has been implicated in many aspects of carcinogenesis, such as “the growth of tumor-nourishing blood vessels and the invasion of cancer cells into body tissue.” When pectin binds with gal3, the protein’s cancer-promoting activities are inhibited.

Jam and jelly develop their potential anti-cancer properties because the manner in which pectin is prepared for use in them is likely to trigger the conditions that create the binding with gal3. Even as promising as these findings may be, much more research needs to be conducted before anything definitive can be said about the possible cancer-fighting benefits of jam and jelly.

Labels: cancer