Eating Cruciferous Vegetables Can Help Reduce the Risk of Several Types of Cancer, Including Breast Cancer

26/09/06 Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Making specific diet changes is one of many steps -- like regular exercise and reducing fat intake -- women can take to reduce the chance of being diagnosed with this deadly disease.

"There is much research showing a strong connection between the regular consumption of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage -- and more specifically, its fermented form, Sauerkraut -- and a reduced risk of breast cancer," said Ryan Downs, co-owner of Great Lakes Kraut Co. of Bear Creek, Wis. "It's very encouraging news."

A study, led by Michigan State University and University of New Mexico researcher Dorothy Pathak, observed that the breast cancer risk among Polish women who immigrated to the United States -- after being accustomed to a cabbage- and Sauerkraut-heavy diet -- tripled to match that of U.S. women within one generation. The study was presented during the November 2005 American Association for Cancer Research's "Annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research" meeting.

"The subjects in Dr. Pathak's study who ate about four servings of Sauerkraut or cabbage every week during adolescence were about 74 percent less likely to get breast cancer than women who ate about one and a half or less servings of Sauerkraut every week," Downs said.

That's good news to women, especially since the American Cancer Society expects to see 212,920 new breast cancer cases this year and 40,970 breast cancer deaths.

Pathak's findings aren't just beneficial to younger women, she said, addressing delegates at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting. Eating anti-cancer foods like cabbage and Sauerkraut can also aid older women.

Specifically, it is the hydrolysis products of glucosinolates found in such anti-cancer foods as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage that have anticarcinogenic properties, according to researchers at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, the Netherlands.

"Increased consumption of cabbage/Sauerkraut foods in adolescence and adulthood may be an important primary prevention for breast cancer," Pathak said.

Another study, "Urinary Isothiocyanate Levels, Brassica, and Human Breast Cancer," published in the July 2003 edition of Cancer Research, also determined that women who consumed more cruciferous or brassica vegetables exhibited a reduced risk of breast cancer.

"Greater brassica vegetable consumption, as measured by the urinary ITC biomarker, was associated with significantly reduced breast cancer risk among Chinese women," the study said.

Some of cabbage's strongest cancer prevention abilities emerge during its fermentation process. The process produces isothiocyanates, which aid in the prevention of cancer in the breasts, according to a study published in the October 23, 2002, edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The vegetable's cancer-fighting abilities also emerge when eaten raw or short- cooked, Pathak's research noted.