Summer’s waning. It’s your last chance to gather these anti-cancer wonders and preserve their pleasures for those long, winter nights. Get out today, and buy a bushel or four along with a large cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer, then follow these guidelines on how to freeze them.

Berries are bursting with anti-cancer activity. Just look at that color. Both raspberries and blueberries are particularly abundant in anthocyanidins, plant chemicals responsible for almost all the vivid shades.

According to food scientist Dr. Richard Beliveau, anthocyanidins inhibit  proteins that cause cancer cells to grow and spread and start a chain reaction that leads the cells down the path to suicide.  Blueberries are also rich in proanthocyanidins, which some studies have indicated counter estrogen’s effects, he writes.  

And then there are the antioxidants. Berries are filled with them.

Plus, raspberries along with strawberries are your main dietary source of ellagic acid, which,  Beliveau says, prevent carcinogens from becoming activated and inhibit those proteins that promote metastasis.  

The Russians used raspberries as an antidote to poison; the Chinese, as  a remedy for aging.  If only we could figure out how to package them without all that plastic!

While you’re chewing on that one, try this for a quick treat: 

Blueberries Bursting with Cinnamon: An Ode to Summer

Ingredients:

½ cup blueberries, preferably wild (higher in antioxidants than domestic ones)

2 tsp lemon juice

½ tsp cinnamon

Optional: 1- 2 T almond milk and dash of vanilla

3 simple steps:

Heat berries in saucepan until they pop, adding lemon juice as you stir them.

Make well in the center of pan, add cinnamon and rapidly mix it with berries.

Add almond milk and vanilla, and stir.      

Serves: 1

And did I mention that cinnamon, too, has anti-cancer properties?