Can eating your broccoli and cabbage help protect you against lung cancer? According to a study published in the October 29, 2005 issue of the British medical journal, Lancet, the answer is yes.
This isnt the first time that its been suggested that cruciferous vegetables may have a preventive effect against lung cancer, but it is the largest scale study to date. There have been a number of smaller observational studies that reported a possible link between the vegetables and lung cancer prevention, but they were considered to be too small to be definitive. This study, conducted by a group of researchers at the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, compared 2,141 people diagnosed with lung cancer with a group of healthy people in the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. They chose countries where the consumption of vegetables like cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts has been traditionally high.
We found protective effects with at least weekly consumption of cruciferous vegetables, the research letter in the Lancet stated.
Researchers believe that the beneficial effects of...