Dr. Weeks Comment: 4 years ago in 2013 when I started eating whole seeds (husk and all) and cured my 20 years of back pain, I also started eating the entire avocado – skin, flesh and pit (provided it was organic). Here is the recipe for a great healthy smoothie: using a powerful blender – I like the Vitamix – add 1 ripe raw organic non-GMO avocado, 2 tablespoons raw organic honey (must be crystallized otherwise is it NOT raw) 1 cup ice, 1 piece of fruit (apple, banana, peach) 1 teaspoon of organic vanilla and blend. Fabulous and intensely nutritious!
See this lecture to learn about the power of seed nutrition (this is the revolution in nutrition!) – avocados discussed at minute 44.
Now a smart cancer researcher is investigating the medicinal qualities in the pit of the avocado.
Remember, don’t settle for extracted seed oils – eat the whole offering – seeds and pits and husk and all~
Pitting avocados against leukemia stem cells
By Flora Pan, CBC News Posted: Jun 06, 2017 5:08 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 07, 2017 8:54 AM ET
Paul Spagnuolo is working on creating a drug with an avocado compound that targets cancer cells. (Paul Spagnuolo)
A Guelph food science researcher is getting $100,000 from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to fund investigations into using an avocado compound as a possible treatment for leukemia.
Paul Spagnuolo discovered that Avocatin B, a compound mainly found in avocado pits can kill leukemia stem cells in 2015.
“Getting funds to do any type of research is a reason to celebrate,” said Spagnuolo told CBC News.
The funding will further his research by allowing his lab to use better equipment and collaborate with cancer researchers from the University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Ottawa University and McMaster University.
Spagnuolo’s lab tested more than 800 natural compounds for their ability to kill leukemia stem cells and discovered Avocatin B was the most potent and only targeted cancer cells.
Avocatin B kills leukemia stem cells by stopping fatty acid oxidation in the cells, a process necessary for the cancer cell to digest fat as a fuel source in order to live and grow.
“Our cells can utilize glucose primarily and some other parts, but leukemia cells are rewired so that if you inhibit the oxidation process, they will die,” he said.
The next steps
Spagnulo and his lab are now looking to develop a way to detect whether or not Avocatin B is circulating in the blood and bone marrow.
Leukemia cells live in the bloodstream or bone marrow, so it’s important for the drug to make it to those parts to kill the cancer cells.
“We want to be able to detect our drug inside the blood so that we can understand how we can formulate products better to get our product into the blood,” said Spagnuolo.
Moving forward, Spagnuolo’s lab will have to report to OICR quarterly, it’s a condition of the funding which is spread over two years and has the possibility of renewal for another two years.
“(It’s) a lot more intense than I anticipated, but I think the key here is it’s very results oriented,” said Spagnuolo, “There’s no complacency here.”