The delicious and healthy mango.
Mangoes are full packed with vitamins and minerals and contain like all fruits very few fats and calories. They are perfect to replenish salts, vitamins and energy after physical exercise.
The famous Unani physician Hakeen Hashmi teaches that mangoes strengthens and invigorates the nerve tissues in muscles, heart and brain and other parts of the body.
Hartwell claims in his book "Plants Against Cancer," that the phenols in mangoes, such as quercetin, isoquercitrin, astragalin, fisetin, gallic acid and methyl gallate, as well as the abundant enzymes, have healing and cancer-preventing capacities.
In gall bladder cancer a protective effect of mango consume has been proven (Pandey, NCBI).
Skin aging is a consequence of chronic sun exposure to the sun and therefore ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Naturally occurring antioxidants are known to reduce skin aging. Therefore, the aim of a study (see sources below) was to evaluate the protective role of mango extract against UVB-induced skin aging in hairless mice.
RESULTS:
The mean length of wrinkles in an UVB-treated vehicle mice group significantly improved after the oral administration of mango extract, which significantly inhibited the increase in epidermal thickness and epidermal hypertrophy. Furthermore, a marked increase in collagen bundles was observed in the UVB-treated mice group after the administration of mango extract by Masson's trichrome staining.
CONCLUSION:
These results indicate that mango extract showed anti-photoaging activity in UVB-irradiated hairless mice.
If you know little about the mango understand this: It's been found to prevent or stop certain colon and breast cancer cells in the lab. Though the mango is an ancient fruit heavily consumed in many parts of the world, little has been known about its health aspects. The National Mango Board commissioned a variety of studies with several U.S. researchers to help determine its nutritional value.
"If you look at what people currently perceive as a superfood, people think of high antioxidant capacity, and mango is not quite there," said Dr. Susanne Talcott, who with her husband, Dr. Steve Talcott, conducted the study on cancer cells. "In comparison with antioxidants in blueberry, acai and pomegranate, it's not even close."
But the team checked mango against cancer cells anyway, and found it prevented or stopped cancer growth in certain breast and colon cell lines, Susanne Talcott noted.
"It has about four to five times less antioxidant capacity than an average wine grape, and it still holds up fairly well in anticancer activity. If you look at it from the physiological and nutritional standpoint, taking everything together, it would be a high-ranking super food," she said. "It would be good to include mangoes as part of the regular diet."
The Talcotts tested mango polyphenol extracts in vitro on colon, breast, lung, leukemia and prostate cancers. Polyphenols are natural substances in plants and are associated with a variety of compounds known to promote good health.
Mango showed some impact on lung, leukemia and prostate cancers but was most effective on the most common breast and colon cancers.
The Thai mango is known as "Ma Muang" in Thai, although this varies by region. As part of the feng shui tradition, for generations many Thais have believed that growing a mango tree on the south side of the house will bring prosperity to the family. The mango tree only bears fruit once per year, and its season is between March and early June.
Note:
Common food allergens are cow's milk, soy, eggs, fruits, peanuts, treenuts such as hazelnuts, seafood and most recently allergies to products that have not been traditionally used in Europe such as kiwi or mango.
Already a small amount of food proteins can trigger an allergic reaction. The immune system protects our body from harmful foreign proteins.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12195163
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/mangoes.shtml#ixzz1wixzpOr8