Can soursop, beans, tomatoes, and onion cure cancer?

Hyderabad: A Facebook post claiming that soursop, beans, tomatoes, and onion are natural remedies for cancer is doing the rounds.

In the viral video, a woman says people should stop eating starch and sugary foods, partaking in alcohol, and smoking and start eating beans and soursop for two weeks. She also points out that if people follow her advice, cancer would “become a thing of the past.”

Interestingly, the woman does not cite any sources to back up her claim.

The video was uploaded with hashtags like #cancer, #remedies, #viralreels, and #trendingreels.

Also, text that appears over the narrator’s face reads “Effective Natural Remedy For Cancer.”

Is this claim legitimate? Let’s find out.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is absolutely false.

In simple words, cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. There are more than 100 types of cancer. Types of cancer are usually named for the organs or tissues where the cancers form. For example, lung cancer starts in the lung, and brain cancer starts in the brain.

Coming back to the claim, let’s debunk the claim for each fruit/vegetable one by one.

Can soursop cure cancer?

No, soursop cannot cure cancer.

Soursop or graviola is a dark green, prickly fruit that comes from the graviola tree. Graviola contains many nutrients. The leaves and stems of the graviola tree are used in traditional medicine for many issues.

According to WebMD, “Modern scientists have been studying the plant for 50 years. They see potential promise in graviola. They found it kills cancer cells in test tubes and in animal studies. What they don’t yet know is if it works as a treatment for cancer in humans.”

According to a 2021 study, multiple studies were conducted to find out whether soursop can be a potential cure for cancer. While the studies found that soursop may have benefits in treating cancer, the research is only conclusive in case of mice, rats, and isolated human cells. It should be noted that no human trial has been done yet. “Future studies investigating its use in people diagnosed with a range of cancers are warranted,” the study concluded.

Another study, which studied the impact of self-medication with herbal medicine on breast cancer patients, found a link between consuming soursop and low survival rates after consuming the ingredient for a longer period of time. It concluded, “…self-medication with Graviola or Alenda may be associated with an increase of death risk in patients with breast cancer. Further studies are needed to confirm these results.”

Moreover, we found that in 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a series of warnings to 14 companies involved in making products with soursop and claiming it was an alternative treatment for cancer.

NewsMeter has earlier debunked the claim that soursop can cure cancer. Read here.

Can beans cure cancer?

The claim is misleading.

A study titled “Common Beans and Their Non-Digestible Fraction: Cancer Inhibitory Activity—An Overview” found, “Beans are good sources of bioactive compounds and recent evidence provides information of their impact and mechanism of action on this pathology, mainly for non-digestible fraction of beans on colon cancer.”

It added, “Further research is warranted regarding the implications and the molecular mechanisms in which common beans and their bioactive compounds modulate the development of different types of cancer.”

According to Medical News Today, “No foods protect people against cancer completely, but some foods contain nutrients that may help reduce the risk.” It further said legumes, such as beans, peas, and lentils, are high in fiber, which may help lower the risk of some types of cancer like colon and breast cancer.

“The study results indicated that people with diets high in bean fiber were 20% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who did not meet their daily fiber intake,” it added.

But it should be noted that according to the claim, consuming beans for two weeks potentially cures cancer which is unlikely.

Can tomatoes cure cancer?

The claim is false.

According to Cancer Research UK , “No, eating tomatoes doesn’t prevent cancer. Some studies have looked at whether eating tomatoes might help prevent prostate cancer. These studies focused on a chemical in tomatoes called lycopene. But there is no good evidence that lycopene reduces overall cancer risk or the risk of prostate cancer. Even so, tomatoes, like other fruits and vegetables, can still be part of a healthy balanced diet, which can help to reduce the risk of cancer overall.”

Can onions cure cancer?

The claim stands false.

According to Healthline, “Onions have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. They may lower blood sugar levels, improve bone health, and reduce the risk of several types of cancers.”

Conclusion: Misleading.

It should be noted that apart from the risk reduction effects on certain types of cancers we could not find any conclusive study that proved that onions are a potent cancer killer.

Hence, it is evident that all four fruits/veggies claim to help reduce the effects of certain types of cancers but no particular food can cure or kill cancer.

Even if the fruits/vegetables are beneficial, two weeks to show any effect is apparently impossible.