The heated, or shall I say EXTREMELY HEATED, debate over vitamin B17 being the solution to effective cancer prevention, (just as vitamin C was the solution to scurvy disease a few hundred years ago) will rage on for decades I am sure, but for those who know instinctively that there might be some truth to it, and don't want to wait decades for the FDA and JAMA to take it mainstream, he or she might wanna push forward, and get B17 into their daily eating regiment, "just in case" the theory is true.
My solution is 3 or 4 apricot seeds every, although they are extremely bitter (even though I like the taste). One thoughtful solution for smoothie makers is to simply throw the apple core into the daily smoothie to get your B17 from the apple seeds.
Let's say your instincts and logic kick in and you say, "just in case this B17 thing is true, to cover my butt on cancer, I'm gonna start getting some into my diet". The problem then becomes, if the solution to cancer prevention is a DAILY dietary adjustment, then great, just add that food to the lunchbox and keep on trucking. However the list below shows how hard it could be to get B17 in on a daily basis.
Vitamin B17 Sources:
- Apple seeds
- Bamboo shoots
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Buckwheat
- Millet and millet seeds
- Barley
- Brown rice
- Cashew nuts
- Cassava
- Peach kernels
- Plum kernels
- Pecans
- Quince
- Sorghum cane syrup
- Apricot seeds
- Peach seeds
- Prune seeds
- Cherry Seeds
- Crushed Linseed
- Walnuts
- several other foods, look them up, since you're on the web 🙂
Looking at this list, it could possibly quickly turn "impractical" to consistently get some B17 in everyday. Perhaps the brown rice might be an option, but you would have to eat a heck of a lot of brown rice and eat it everyday, considering some of the above list only has trace amounts or smaller amounts of the B17 as compared to the champion of B17, the apricot seeds.
Apricot seeds are for me, the easiest , and the cheapest solution. Plus apricot seeds have more of the nutrient than any food in the world. A bag of Organic Apricot seeds costs about $20 and will last for about four or five months. As I said before however, they are extremely bitter, like bitter almonds times three. I have come to like the bitter taste, perhaps my body is sending my brain some signal that it "wants and needs" this nutrient, so it sends signals to my brain that "it likes the seeds" and to keep on eating them. Hey, whatever works.
If I am correct, apple seeds (not the apple itself) come in second or third so far as foods containing the B17 nutrient. My good friend and Gaia Blog contributor Harry Bentley taught me that if you run across a superfood, or promising new fruit or vegetable, the easiest way to get into your daily regiment is to "throw in into the blender as part of your daily smoothie". In the spirit of that sound advice, it's pretty easy to use apple in your smoothies and simply throw the apple core straight into the blender with everything else. The seeds will get ground up, the core of the apple helps give the smoothie a sweet apple taste. This also allows you to throw some kale, spinach, or other leafy greens into the smoothie becaue the apple core will keep the smoothie tasting fruity in spite of the added veggies. You can also save apple cores from the apples you eat during the day, and freeze them for use on days when you don't consume an apple. You can also buy a bunch of apples, dice them up, apple core and all, and throw them into the freezer to add to the smoothie to give it that "Jamba Juice" frothy milkshake texture.
As a quick note, many people find that apricot seeds and apple seeds may make them feel a little "light headed" or "slightly dizzy". That is because the nutrient can temporarily slightly lower your blood pressure. It happened to me for a few days when I first started, but soon went away. The body is always working to balance itself depending on what we put in it. Just mentioning it because there can be a tendency to stop using something when something different is felt in the body. I have been eating 7 or 8 apricot seeds a day for 4 years now and have never felt better. So don't let that stop you. As a general rule, you should only consume as many apple cores as the number of apples you can eat in a single day. If this becomes part of your daily regiment, I think one apple a day will do the trick.
It just occurred to me that growing up we all remember the story of "Johnny Appleseed" and the saying that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away". Just in case there was something to this, maybe it might be best to throw that apple core into the smoothie as opposed to the garbage can.
Are apple seeds and apricot seeds poisonus?
My short answer is they contain a cyanide molecule, but nature [supposedly] designed it to be safely molecularly bound with a larger set of molecules, UNTIL it comes in contact with a cancer cell. I look at it as a Suicide Bomber for Cancer only. So the answer is no, but looked at from a certain angle, yes. There seems to be a lot of controversy on this issue. But I have been consuming apple cores in my smoothies and apricot seeds (which have much more B17 than apple seeds), for 7 years now. Thus, I'm not "cutting and pasting" off the web here, I'm talking about what I am doing for myself, maybe to help someone else make a more sound decision about what to do
I do think apricot and apple seeds are toxic in large doses, but that applies to hundreds, if not thousands of foods, herbs, and supplements. But, when you get them into your regiment, I believe I only need one apple core a day, or one apricot seed a day, for 6-7 months out of the year.
I have learned that over the last 7 years I can overdo it with the apricot seeds and apple seeds (as recently late as July 2014). Now I try to consume them 6 or 7 months out of the year and give my system a rest for the rest of the time. For me, I have occasionally got a condition I call a "stressed liver", as the liver has to work hard to filter out the by products of these seeds, not painful, but you can feel the stress. I take a supplement with milk thistle and other herbs called Liversol to simply and quickly resolve that issue. To read about how a herbal healer first diagnosed it for me, read here
I guess we all have to make a call based on what we learn, and although the whole concept of cyanide is scary, and I could simply not consume them, my choice is to keep consuming them, mainly because of OVERWHELMING evidence that B17 rich diets will keep you cancer free.
~stay healthy~
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5 Responses
An apple a day does indeed keep the doctor away, or at least so it seems. A lot ahs been written about B17, some goood, some bad, but the truth is, B17 is humankind's missing vitamen.
Eat B17, drink alkaline water, and aviod all animal products, too much beer and cigarettes of course and we can all wave bye bye to cancer and THAT is why it gets negative press.
It works –
RVW
What about the trace amounts of cyanide that are contained in these seeds?
The cyanide is bound to other chemicals, and only release when it comes into contact with cancer cells. The trace cyanide is the benefit of the seed, but at the same time how the “powers that be” are scaring people from natural solutions. I’m taking 7-8 apricot seeds per day for 6 years now. And still never been sick a day in my life at 53. Eating too many apple or apricot seeds is dangerous however, but you would have to eat a whole hell of a lot, like a glass of apple seeds or 100 apricot seeds
During my 85 years of life I have eaten 10s of thousands of apples, core and all. As a chemist I have worked with several people who deloped cancer I did not. Could I have developed an immunity to cancer?
Hi Tony,
As I say, I eat the apple, and throw the seed into the blender with y smoothies. People crack up at my apple cores in the freezer.
I think when I first started this site, I ran across some information that there was a “non scientific” study of about 3000 people who ate apricot seeds and apple seeds and somehow their health was monitored over their lives. Supposedly, none of the got cancer, I mean ZERO!!! The odds of that are impossible unless there is a true healing agent in apricot and apple seeds. I forgot where I ran across that, and thus cannot verify. Of course, if it really happened, Big Pharma is gonna do everything in its power for letting that information be know to the public….sigh….
I wish someone would do it now, take a few thousand people who eat apricot and apple seeds, and log how we die for the next generation. I none of us die of cancer and that can be documented and verified via death certificate cause of death or whatever, then we would have proven the theory….at least for the next generation.
Thanks for reading and commenting
Doug at GAIA Health Blog