Vegetables help reduce the risk of cancer

Changing your diet may be among the most effective ways of prolonging your life is the basic idea being preached through a series of studies presented to the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Cancer as such is thought to be associated with diet and after not smoking eating more fruit and vegetables is the second most effective way to cut the risk of cancer.

They have found that eating cabbage, cooking meat with garlic and smearing your skin with extract of broccoli can all help reduce the risk of cancer.

"Basic research is discovering more and more about the cancer-preventing properties of things we are eating," Nelson said at a news conference. "The idea of having more fruits and vegetables in the diet has more and more evidence to support it. Eating cabbage, cooking meat with garlic and smearing your skin with extract of broccoli can all help reduce the risk of cancer, scientists have found. A series of studies presented yesterday to the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research add to the burgeoning evidence that changing your diet may be among the most effective ways of prolonging your life. Up to a third of cancers are thought to be associated with diet. Experts say eating more fruit and vegetables is the second most effective way to cut the risk of cancer, after not smoking.In the latest studies, researchers from the University of New Mexico investigated the rapid rise in breast cancer among Polish women who emigrated to the US. The risk of breast cancer was three times higher among Polish women living in America than in their counterparts at home, suggesting a strong environmental factor.Dorothy Rybaczyk-Pathak and colleagues evaluated the diet of Polish immigrants living in the Chicago and Detroit areas. They found that those who ate raw or short-cooked cabbage three times a week had a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer compared with those who ate less than one serving a week.In Poland, women eat 30lb of cabbage and sauerkraut a year, compared with 10lb a year for US women. Those who ate most cabbage during adolescence had the lowest rates of cancer. If cabbage is not to your taste, you could try rubbing an extract from it on your skin. Scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found it halved the rate of skin cancer in mice. Cabbage is a member of the brassica family which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. These vegetables contain glucosinolates which are broken down by chewing or cutting into sulphoraphane, which has been shown in previous studies to have anti-cancer properties.

 

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Researchers from the University of New Mexico investigated the rapid rise in breast cancer among Polish women who emigrated to the US. They found that the risk of breast cancer was three times higher among Polish women living in America than in their counterparts at home. This suggested a strong environmental factor. The diet of polish immigrants living in Chicago and Detroit was evaluated and it was found that those who ate raw or short-cooked cabbage three times a week had a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer compared with those who ate less than one serving a week.

 

In Poland, women eat a lot of cabage. Those who ate most cabbage during adolescence had the lowest rates of cancer. If cabbage is not to your taste, you could try rubbing an extract from it on your skin as scientists from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found it halved the rate of skin cancer in mice. Cabbage is a member of the brassica family which includes broccoli, brussels sprouts and cauliflower. These vegetables basically contain glucosinolates which are broken down by chewing or cutting into sulphoraphane, which has been shown in previous studies to have anti-cancer properties.

Albena Dinkova-Kostova and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University applied an extract of sulphoraphane to the skin of hairless mice after they had been exposed to a dose of ultraviolet light. They estimated that this would equal to what a person would get spending a day sunbathing on the beach. After 20 weeks of "sunbathing" twice a week the mice had the extract painted on their backs twice a day for 11 weeks. The incidence and size of skin tumours in the treated mice was thus reduced to half of that in the untreated controls.

The post exposure treatment of the extract seemed to have inhibited the carcinogenic effects of the ultraviolet light. Dr Dinkova-Kostova said the findings suggested a "promising strategy" in adults who grew up before sunscreens were widely available.

Researchers from Florida A&M University found that using garlic to flavour meat could help counter carcinogenic substances produced by cooking protein too and thus help reduce the risk of cancer.