Substances in cabbage-like vegetables, known as Brassica vegetables, may offset the effects of fats and other toxins, said Lenore Kohlmeier, a cancer researcher and former resident of West Berlin.
Men and women in pre-reunification East Germany had far lower levels of breast and colon cancer than their West German counterparts, despite their higher consumption of fatty foods and lower intakes of fresh fruit. On the other hand, they ate up to 40 times more cabbage than Western Europeans.
Kohlmeier is a nutrition and epidemiology professor in the School of Public Health and a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention and control programs.
She recruited eight volunteers in spring 1994 for a pilot study and had them eat cabbage-rich meals for lunch and dinner. Kohlmeier, with colleagues from the Environmental Protection Agency, is reviewing data from the volunteers to see if they show biochemical changes.
She said she believes cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables may help speed the absorption of carcinogens by the small and large intestine. Or cabbage may help the body produce enzymes that neutralize carcinogens and wash them out of the body. Or cabbage may reduce the production of estrogen, a potential carcinogen. Or, finally, cabbage may make natural toxins less potent in some other way.
The project was funded mainly by the EPA-Epidemiology Co-Operative program. Five laboratories across the country also contributed free data analyses.
To the UNC Home Page