Including mangos in summer fruit salads adds both delicious sweetness and health benefits. A new study by Texas AgriLife Research food scientists examined five mango varieties most common in the United States: Ataulfo, Francine, Haden, Kent and Tommy Atkins, and found that the tropical fruit has anti-cancer properties.

When exposed to a variety of cancer cells in the laboratory, mango turned out to be especially effective against certain breast and colon cancers. The researchers attribute the cancer-fighting properties to the fruit’s polyphenolics, a class of bioactive compounds responsible for preventing or stopping cancer cells. As one might expect with an all natural anti-cancer agent, normal cells were not affected by the mango, which targeted only cells that had gone bad, by interrupting their mutated division cycles.

Source: Texas A&M AgriLive Communications, 2010