A doctor is touting the health benefits of kiwifruit, including the incredible claim that kiwi can actually address damaged DNA.
The video sharing its alleged benefits comes from Dr. Kunal Sood, a Germantown, Md.-based doctor who is, according to his LinkedIn bio, “Double board certified in Anesthesiology and Interventional Pain medicine.”
Stitching a TikTok video advising people to eat one kiwi per day, because it will “protect your DNA by about 60%,” Sood starts his video—which was put up on May 8 and has received more than 2.6 million views since—by saying, “This is true.”
Can kiwi reduce the risk of cancer?
He explains, “Kiwi has been shown to not only repair DNA damage but also stimulate DNA repair and there is research to support this. The reason Kiwi reduces DNA damage is because it contains both vitamin C and E which are antioxidants.”
A study housed in the National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine site contends, “Antioxidant micronutrients may account for the beneficial effects of fruits on human health. A direct demonstration that consumption of fruit decreases oxidative DNA damage in human cells would support this hypothesis. Kiwifruit was taken as an example of a food with putative antioxidant properties, and its effectiveness at decreasing oxidative DNA damage was assessed in ex vivo as well as in vitro tests.”
Sood says that’s not the only reason to sample the funny-looking fruit.
“What this actually means for our health,” he says regarding the DNA-protecting properties, “Is we’re reducing our risk of cancer, slowing down the aging process, augmenting our immune system and protecting our brain. As an added bonus, kiwi have been shown to be a great source of fiber and there is research that shows that can decrease your risk of constipation.”
@doctorsood Who else loves Kiwis? 🥝
♬ original sound – DoctorSood, M.D.
Viewers share their thoughts
Commenters brought their thoughts to the table.
“My father has had 1 kiwi every morning since I have met him,” said one, presumably referring to her birth. “He is 95 and has never been sick. Coincidence? No idea!”
Another said, “I love kiwi .. I hate peeling it.”
But several contended you don’t have to remove the brown skin to get to the green meat inside, with one saying, “Bro just literally take one bite of a kiwi with the skin on and you’ll see it’s totally fine and delicious. It’s just like eating an apple.”
Another said simply, “I eat it with the skin on.”
That led someone else to exclaim, “I found my people! I eat it like an apple. The skin is the best part.”
Another claimed a different benefit: “I eat one at bedtime every night for melatonin.”
A Science Museum of Virginia article, citing a study testing kiwi eaters vs. a control group, said, “Here’s what these researchers observed at the end of all that eating and sleeping. The fresh kiwi and dried powder kiwi people slept better than the water-control group. They also had a better mood in the morning upon waking and their urine showed higher levels of serotonin and melatonin metabolite concentrations. A quick neuro-chemistry reminder: melatonin is the brain chemical that helps us sleep and serotonin is the brain chemical that helps us become awake and alert after all that sleep.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Dr. Sood via LinkedIn mail.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
