"Cabbage helps reduce breast cancer risk", China Daily, September 26,
2006,
Link:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/lifestyle/2006-09/26/content_696753.htm

A recent study shows that eating cruciferous vegetables like cabbage
and its fermented form, sauerkraut, can help reduce the risk of several
types of cancer, including breast cancer.

Changes in diet can significantly reduce breast cancer risk among
women. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among
women.

Previous researches have shown a strong connection between the regular
consumption of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, brussel sprouts,
cauliflower, cabbage and a reduced risk of breast cancer. A new
research has foccused more specifically on the fermented form of
cabbage, Sauerkraut.

Sauerkraut, part of a typical German cuisine that has a distinctive
sour flavor, is finely sliced white cabbage fermented by various lactic
acid bacteria including Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus.

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.

According to Dr. Pathak's study women 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.

Eating cabbage and Sauerkraut at younger age can be an important
primary prevention for breast cancer. 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.

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.