Fruits, veggies, and their effect on cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most common cancer among Korean women. However, there are few data on dietary factors related to thyroid cancer risk. The objective of a British Journal of Nutrition study was to evaluate the association between raw vegetables and fruits intake and confirmed malignant thyroid cancer cases and 115 benign cases.

High raw vegetable intake was associated with a reduced thyroid cancer risk both in malignant and benign cases. Among fruits, persimmon intake had an association with reduced thyroid cancer risk in both malignant and benign cases and tangerine intake had an associated reduction in malignant cases. The frequency of consumption of raw vegetables and persimmon also had a consistent inverse association in both malignant and benign cases. These results suggest that high consumption of raw vegetables, persimmons and tangerines may decrease thyroid cancer risk and help prevent early-stage thyroid cancer.

In another study, Chinese women who ate cabbage, broccoli and leafy greens saw improved survival rates after breast cancer than women who did not eat them, said a study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting. The findings came from data on 4,886 Chinese breast cancer survivors age 20-75 who were diagnosed with stage one to stage four breast cancer from 2002 to 2006. Women who ate more cruciferous vegetables over the 36 months following their diagnosis saw their risk of dying from any cause decrease by 27 percent to 62 percent compared to women who reporting eating little or none of these veggies. The risk of dying of breast cancer decreased by 22 to 62 percent for the cruciferous veggie eaters, and their chance of experiencing a recurrence of breast cancer dropped by 21 to 35 percent.

Bonnie: these studies should not be surprising to any of us, especially when it comes to cruciferous veggies. The data on their cancer preventive benefits is vast.