Scientists found that eating vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, turnips, collards, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, radish, turnip and watercress offers protection from bladder cancer. They say that cruciferous veggies have a high amount of something called isothiocyanates and that's what cuts the cancer risk.
Isothiocyanates works by acting on enzymes that are somehow associated with either developing or avoiding bladder cancer.
Researchers studied 697 patients who had just been diagnosed with bladder cancer against a control group of 708 patients who were matched by sex, age and race. They found an anti-cancer affect in consuming cruciferous vegetables.
Arugula, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collard greens, daikon, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, radishes, rutabaga, turnips, watercress,
Dr. Alan Kristal, a cancer prevention researcher with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is also a trained chef. He offers these tips on working cancer fighting veggies into daily meals and snacks.
For breakfast, add sauteed vegetables to scrambled eggs or omelets.
For lunch, include a salad with plenty of raw vegetables. Eat vegetable soups and a side of cooked vegetables.
For dinner, eat two vegetables with your main course, or eat a vegetable and have a salad. Add vegetables to pasta dishes and add extra vegetables to casseroles.
For snacks, keep some cut up raw vegetables in the refrigerator ready to go. Cut up broccoli or cauliflower florets, they will keep crisp in water in your refrigerator.
Previous research has also found that eating cruciferous vegetables helps protect people from colon cancer and prostrate cancer as well. So it seems that mom was right when she said eat a variety of vegetables.
