Difficulty level Easy

This is one of a series of posts about food and cancer.

Isn't it nice when something delicious turns out to be really good for you? There are few food pleasures that are as delightful as simply putting a ripe berry into your mouth. It seems that raspberries and strawberries contain ellagic acid and blueberries have anthocyanidins, both of which block the activity of at least two proteins essential to the development of cancer.

Authors Richard Beliveau and Denis Gingras write in Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer (2007, DK Adult). "These molecules interfere with the formation of new blood vessels in the neighbourhood of the tumour, thus cutting off its supply routes, preventing the tumour from obtaining the oxygen and essential nutrients it needs to grown and spread".

Beliveau and Gingras suggest that you keep a bag of mixed berries in your freezer and have some every day. They defrost really quickly and you can pop them into yogurt, or have them on top of your cereal, or you can bake with them like I did yesterday. The recipe I'm going to share with you took me 5 minutes to mix, and then 40 minutes to bake. That's almost as fast as opening a bag of cookies, and better for you. I thought the recipe could have used a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, but my husband liked it just the way it was. This is listed as a breakfast food, but you could also serve it for dessert.

INGREDIENTS