Cruciferous Vegetables a Hope for Smokers

Researchers found that even vegetables especially broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables can reduce the risk of developing lung cancer among current and former smokers.

Cruciferous vegetables can reduce only cancer in smokers but they can’t prevent it. In smokers who ate at list 4.5 servings of raw cruciferous vegetables a month the risk of developing lung cancer was lowered by 22% to 50% than in smokers who ate less than 2.5 servings a month, showed researchers.

But Li Tang, M.D., Ph.D., of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., said that it is need for much more researches before making a recommendation to eat more cruciferous vegetables for to prevent lung cancer.

"These findings are not strong enough to make a public health recommendation yet," Dr. Tang added. For to show to all people the result of cruciferous vegetables Dr. Tang and her colleagues made one more study. They investigated 948 patients diagnosed with primary lung cancer between 1982 and 1998 and 1,743 of patients who did not have cancer. The two groups were matched on smoking status.

The participants completed questionnaires detailing consumption of various types of common cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, as well as fruits and total vegetables. They found that the preventive effect of fruits and total vegetables was more general, but the beneficial effect of eating cruciferous vegetables was specific to smokers, particularly those who had quit.

At the end of this study was also found that among current smokers, consumption of raw cruciferous vegetables was associated with a lower risk of lung cancer.
There were no significant associations between lung cancer risk and intake of fruits or total vegetables for current smokers. But the more smokers will smoke the fewer will be chances to prevent or to reduce cancer.