What Happens When You Cook This Food
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Reduced risk of some cancers. According to the American Cancer Society, foods rich in beta-
carotenes may lower the risk of cancers of the larynx, esophagus and lungs. There is no
similar benefit from beta-carotene supplements; indeed, one study actually showed a higher
rate of lung cancer among smokers taking the supplement.
Lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records for more
than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses Health Study at Harvard School of
Public Health/Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston identified the first direct link between
two B vitamins and heart health. According to Eric B. Rimm, M.D., of the Harvard School of
Public Health, a diet that provides more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B 6 a day from
either food or supplements, more than twice the current RDA for each, may reduce a woman’s
risk of heart attack by almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the analysis, the
results are presumed to apply to them as well. Many melons are high in folate; green leafy
vegetables, beans, whole grains, meat, fish, poultry, and shellfish are other good sources.
Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United
States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their moth-
ers’ not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The current RDA for
folate is 180 mcg for a woman and 200 mcg for a man, but the FDA now recommends 400 mcg
for a woman who is or may become pregnant. Taking folate supplements before becoming
pregnant and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft
palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Food/Drug Interactions
Melons