Cruciferous Vegetables and Breast Cancer

Cruciferous vegetables have been touted for their anti-cancer effects for quite a while now. These vegetables can help your body breakdown and eliminate estrogen and estrogen's break-down products. A study presented at the recent American Association for Cancer Research showed that eating cruciferous vegetables after breast cancer diagnosis was associated with improved survival among Chinese women. Cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and bok choy. In China women are more likely to eat turnips, Chinese cabbage, bok choy and greens. In the West we tend to eat more broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Chinese women also tend to eat a lot more of these vegetables than Western women do. The more cruciferous vegetables a woman ate, the more the reduction in all-cause mortality (highest group 62% reduction), breast cancer-specific mortality (highest group 62% reduction) and breast cancer recurrence (highest group 35% reduction). While these results may not apply in the same way to Western women, certainly including a lot more cruciferous vegetables in the diet will help and not hurt.