Cabbage power: Cancer-fighting benefits in your daily diet
Although the season for young cabbage has begun, this vegetable can be enjoyed all year round. Research shows it can help protect against many diseases, including cancer.
Scientists conduct numerous studies on food for its anticancer properties. Cruciferous vegetables, which include cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower, stand out. These vegetables contain bioactive compounds, especially sulforaphane, that protect us from carcinogenic factors we encounter daily.
Start appreciating cabbage
Scientists are convinced of the importance of vegetables in our diet. While we know this, we often underestimate some of them. Cabbage, often called "the empty head," is one such undervalued vegetable. This reputation is entirely undeserved because cabbage is rich in health-promoting ingredients. Its medicinal properties were known in ancient Rome, but it was long treated as a cheap vegetable without much value. This view changed with scientific research in the early 20th century.
Cabbage protects against cancer
It has been proven that cabbage can combat inflammations associated with various ailments, including rheumatic diseases, gout, asthma, tuberculosis, gangrene, eye diseases, and cancer. This has encouraged scientists to further study the components in cabbage that may counteract cancer cell development. Phytochemical compounds called indoles were isolated, and their protective properties against cancer were confirmed in animal studies.
How often should you eat cabbage?
Studies have also investigated the impact of vegetable consumption on the development of colorectal cancer. Scientists found that eating cabbage at least once a week can reduce the risk of developing colorectal cancer by one-third, and consuming it 2-3 times a week can decrease the risk by 40 percent. The same effect is observed with sauerkraut and other cruciferous vegetables. Further studies have shown that indoles and isothiocyanates may also help prevent other cancers, including breast, lung, pancreatic, liver, prostate, leukemia, and glioma.
An important ingredient in cabbage
Cruciferous vegetables are rich in antioxidant substances. Besides indoles, they also contain sulforaphane, often referred to as an antidote to cancer. It offers protection at various stages of tumor formation. In addition to its anticancer properties, sulforaphane also has beneficial effects in preventing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as diabetes.
Cabbage in every version
Scientists recommend eating a variety of colored vegetables daily—dark green, orange, and red—as part of cancer prevention. Cabbage plays a vital role here, so it’s better not to treat it as just a seasonal option but to consume it all year round. It can be enjoyed in any form: raw, sauerkraut, or cooked. Both white and red cabbage possess anticancer properties, alongside other vegetables in this group, such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnip, horseradish, kale, radish, cress, rutabaga, and mustard.
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