Tangerines Can Keep Diabetes At Bay

Thu, 07 Apr 2011
We have all heard of the old adage that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Well the daily tangerine can perhaps even provide further benefits for our health .

Scientists at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., say a substance found in high concentrations in the fruit prevents obesity and offers protection against type 2 diabetes in lab mice.

Their research, published in the journal Diabetes, found that the naturally occurring substance nobiletin also helped to protect against atherosclerosis — the disease responsible for most heart attacks and strokes .

"The nobiletin-treated mice were basically protected from obesity," Murray Huff, a vascular biology scientist at the University of Western Ontario, said in a release. "And in longer-term studies, nobiletin also protected these animals from atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque in arteries, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke ."

Nobiletin is part of a family of molecules called flavonoids that are found naturally in citrus fruits. Tangerines boast the highest nobiletin concentration of any citrus fruit.

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