Here’s a sparkling twist on guacamole to share with friends this holiday season and add to your growing repertoire of anti-cancer recipes.

The emeralds include avocado chunks and cilantro; the rubies, red onions and pomegranates.

Credit goes to the fiery young chef, the host of rEeveena’s Kitchen, a youtube cooking show. 

Here’s what you’ll need –and why.

Green ingredients

Hass avocados–-the ones with the bumpy black skins: They’re significantly lower in copper than the smooth green-skinned ones.  

Avocados are among the top foods for regulating your blood sugar and contain many compounds that function as anti-oxidants and fight inflammation. Careful how you peel them though. That bright green layer just beneath the skin is filled with phytonutrients. Make sure you eat it.    

Lime juice-– has been shown to cause cancer cells to commit suicide in lab studies. The compound hesperitin helps activate a cell signaling process that affects the spread of many kinds of cancer.    

Cilantro—is one to the top sources of quercetin, a phytonutrient with important anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities. It binds copper and iron, minerals that fuel oxidation, and stimulates the uptake of zinc, which boosts your immune system and plays a key role as an anti-oxidant.  Quercetin also inhibits angiogenesis, the process by which tumor cells create blood vessels and then spread throughout the body. 

Red ingredients: 

Red onion—is another good source of quercetin, one of the top 10 foods to decrease inflammation, and like avocado, great for regulating your blood sugar. It’s filled with molecules of sulfur, which the liver uses to remove harmful compounds from your body. Choose small red onions and peel them gently. Like many phytonutrients, quercetin concentrates in the outer layers.

Cayenne--contains capsaicin, another important anti-inflammatory. It inhibits your production of Nuclear Factor-kappa B cells, often called the Black Knights of cancer because they help cancer cells hide from the immune system.

Pomegranate– contains several components with cancer-fighting properties, and recent clinical trials have shown pomegranate juice may help treat prostate cancer. 

Its ellagic acid, for example, has been “shown to possess anti-tumorigenic activities on lung, cervical, colon, breast and prostate cancer cells,” and inhibits the production of aromatase, an enzyme that fuels estrogen. Its luteolin has anti-proliferative effects on liver and colon cancer cells.  Scientists are calling for more clinical trials. 

Meanwhile, you can hedge your bets this holiday season and dazzle your guests by substituting this creamy and sweet guacamole for fruit cake and eggnog.    

Here’s the recipe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81krS6FMGkI

For some anti-cancer synergy, serve some green tea alongside this festive guac.