Cranberry juice, folk medicine's favorite remedy for urinary tract infections, received its first scientific validation at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, when molecular biologist Prof. Nathan Sharon showed it prevents key bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract. Probably the only effective flu remedy on the market also comes from fruit-in this case, the black elderberry. Its secrets were unraveled at Hadassah by virologist Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu, and it is now sold worldwide as Sambucol. Or perhaps you prefer pomegranates. Technion researchers Prof. Ishak Neeman, Shai Schubert and Dr. Ephraim Lansky have found their high levels of antioxidants combat atherosclerosis, inflammation and cancer, and as well as slow cellular aging processes.
Vegetables have as much to offer as fruit.
Garlic has long been known to pack a powerful punch against infection, and Profs. David Mirelman and Meir Wilcheck of Weizmann's Biological Chemistry Department have found out why. And epidemiological data show lower incidence of breast cancer in women who eat a lot of tomatoes, says Dr. Michael Koretz, director of Ben-Gurion University's Elisheva Eshkol Breast Health Center. The medicinal properties of seaweed have long been vaunted, especially by coastal peoples. In vitro experiments at the Pasteur Institute in France showed it to perform more effectively than the principal synthetic medication currently used to treat herpes lesions.