It’s the garden harvest season in Ohio. I’ve been canning and baking and cooking all kinds of goodies from this year’s harvest – including peaches.

Peaches are considered a “stone fruit.” Cherries, plums and nectarines are also stone fruit. I guess when you think about it, it’s not difficult to figure out why they’re called stone fruit. Their pits kind of look and feel like tiny stones.

The last few years the word “super food” or “functional food” have been very popular. However, all foods have function, don’t they? Peaches, and other stone fruit, have a function.

In addition to the common nutritional aspects of stone fruit, research now shows stone fruit can help to kill off cancer cells. In vitro (lab) studies show certain phenols (organic chemicals) in these stone fruit actually kill cancer cells

This is great info for herbalists and medical doctors. While these phenols kill certain kinds of breast cancer (see links below), they leave normal body cells alone. This is HUGE! The current medical treatments, including various chemotherapy options, generally kills and/or damages all cells coming in contact with the substance. These studies on the phenols of stone fruits – specifically types of peaches and plums – are exciting and promising research.

Check out the studies & info here:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100602111145.htm

And

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jf900259m