Sauerkraut and cancer

Vegetarian Times, March, 2006

Women who eat at least three servings per week of sauerkraut or raw cabbage are significantly less likely to develop breast cancer than those who have only one serving. That's the finding of a team of researchers from Michigan State University and Warsaw's National Food and Nutrition Institute who have been trying to figure out why the breast cancer risk of Polish women increases threefold when they immigrate to the United States.

The researchers found that immigrant women who continued to eat these traditional Polish dishes protected themselves from breast cancer, while those who stopped eating them did not. Presenting its findings to the American Association for Cancer Research in October 2005, the team attributed the benefits of sauerkraut and raw cabbage to their high levels of a cancer-fighting compound called glucosinolate, also found in broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens and cauliflower.