It is believed by many that Vitamin B-17 can cure cancer.  I don’t begin to claim this but I do know that my people have consumed apricot kernels, dried mulberries, whole-grains, legumes and berries in our diets for centuries.   As a Hunza native I can tell you that in Hunza we have little cancer, high blood pressure is uncommon as is diabetes and obesity.

It is also claimed we Hunzakutz live to be a hundred or more.  Yes this is so, and I know a number of my people who are 100 and many in their 90’s.  I cannot say we all reach to this magical age but I do believe Hunza has a higher percentage per capita than the western world to reach this age.

Is it our diet …I believe it to be so.   Let’s start with Vitamin B17 V Cancer

Vitamin B17 or Amygdalin is believed by many prominent alternative medicine advocates, Phillip Day, Ralph Moss to name just two, to be if not a cure, a key ingredient to the prevention of cancer. It is believed that cancer will exist only if there is a deficiency of vitamin B17.

How?

All cells whether healthy, or not healthy produce energy and both need fuel to grow and divide. Healthy cells and cancerous cells differ in many ways but one major difference is in their energy production.  Healthy cells prepare their fuel in the cytoplasm of the cell, then pass it to the mitochondria (power station) where with the presence of oxygen, energy is produced.  The cancer cells power station (mitochondria) has been shut off, and only has the ability to prepare the fuel. The cancer cell, no longer can obtain oxygen, so now demands large quantities of glucose to burn in its cytoplasm in order to survive. With its power station shut off, the cancer cell now has a completely different energy system and set of chemical enzymes to a healthy normal cell.

Both healthy and cancer cells have an enzymes known as glucosidase,  a cancer cell, has 3000 times more of this enzyme than a healthy cell.

Why is this Important?

In a normal healthy cell glucosidase is all but non-existent, a different enzyme rhodenase, which helps burn oxygen reacts with B-17 rendering it harmless, converting it to thiocyanate.  Thiocyanate helps regulate blood pressure, and vitamin B-12. But a cancer cell with its high Glucosidase works in a different way.  Glucosidase, the now food of the cancer cell, uniquely breaks down B-17 into hydrogen cyanide and benzaldehyde.   Hydrogen cyanide in turn kills the cell, benzaldehyde is an analgesic……win win I’d say.

Yes I know, you have heard cyanide can kill you, this may be so but the hydrogen cyanide in the naturally occurring B-17 found foods in particular stone fruit kernels, is only released in the presence of the right set of enzymes.  These right enzymes are found only in cancer cells, releasing the cyanide (cyanide then kills the cell) and are not found in normal healthy cells.

Where do we find B-17?

Vitamin B-17 naturally occurs in many foods. The apricot and peach kernel contain about 2% B-17 of their weight.  Apples, prune, plum, cherry and nectarine pips are almost equally as rich in B-17. Millet, buckwheat, barley, sorghum, wheatgrass, almonds, macadamia nuts, sesame seeds, linseed, bamboo shoots, mung beans, lima beans, butter beans and cassava contain B-17 also.  Many of the berries are rich in B-17 strawberries, elderberries, raspberries, blue berries, mulberries and blackberries.  All of these contain natural, absorbable high levels of vitamin B-17.

Much of the above mentioned is consumed every day in one form or another in the Hunza diet.

It is claimed in Philip Days book, Cancer: Why we’re still dying to know the truth, that he consumes 60 apricot kernels a day.  I have never eaten that many in one day, 12 or so apricot kernels and maybe 20 bitter nut kernels is the most I have consumed in one day.  As a young child we would be given bitter nut oil to warm us and we use apricot kernel oil in everyday cooking and also as hair tonics and face and body oil. (Another great way to intake your vitamin B-17).

The Hunza diet is strongly based around our unleavened bread, these breads are made from stone-ground whole grains, again a high source of vitamin B-17.  Whole grain breads, dried fruits, legumes, berries and stone fruit kernels, all high in vitamin B-17, all have been consumed by my fellow Hunzakutz for centuries. A community high in the Himalayan ranges of Pakistan where cancer is all but non-existent.

Perhaps there is a good argument for B-17 to be able to aide in the fight against cancer, all I know is I haven’t been touched by cancer as many of my western friends have.  Is it down to the Hunza way of life and diet, many believe it to be so.

Hunza Bytes  recipes have been passed down from generation to generation as well as creating many fusion dishes.  All dishes are holistic, fresh and seasonal, no additives, preservatives, colours or flavourings.  And don’t forget rich in vitamin B-17, perhaps the natural worlds champion against cancer.