Robert Ancill, CEO of Innovations Food Consultancy, The Next Idea, reports, Apples and onions topped the list of a cancer prevention study. Here’s why: Apples and onions are sources for quercetin, one of the most beneficial of flavenols, and could play a role in preventing and reducing the risk of pancreatic cancer, a study has found. All partici­pants in the study experienced reduced risk, however, smokers who consumed foods rich in flavenols experi­enced a significantly greater reduction.

Researchers tracked the food intake and health outcomes for 183,518 participants in the Multiethnic Cohort Study for eight years. The study evaluated the food consumption of participants and calculated the flavenol intake (for quercetin, kaempferol and myrice­tin). The study determined that flavenol intake does have an impact on the risk for developing pancreatic cancer. Smokers with the lowest intake of flavenols presented with the most pancreatic cancer, researchers say. It was also determined that women in the study had the highest flavenol intake (when compared with men), and 70 percent of the intake came from quercetin, which is linked to apple and onion consumption.

Flavenols are found in many plants and found in high concentrations in apples, onions, tea, berries, kale and broccoli. Quercetin is most plentiful in apples and onions.

The research was originally published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.