Like Brussels sprouts, broccoli is something most people eat only during the festive season, served up with the turkey and gammon and greeted with false enthusiasm. Every so often, we are given news of why broccoli is a super-vegetable, the dietary equivalent of Batman, Spiderman and Superman combined. Here is some more of that news. Broccoli and similar vegetables appear to offer special protection from cancer for smokers, researchers reported. Of course, the sensible thing to do would be not to smoke at all, rather than to smoke and eat broccoli, but it takes all sorts. Researchers have found that former smokers and, especially, those people who are still smoking heavily, got special benefits from eating these vegetables. “The most significant effect was in heavy smokers,” Li Tang of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, who led the study, said. People who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are considered heavy smokers.
Broccoli and other so-called cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts have been known to lower the risk of cancer in general, perhaps through compounds called isothiocyanates. Dr Tang and his colleagues studied 948 cancer patients and 1,743 people who were being screened for cancer but who turned out not to have it. All answered detailed questionnaires about their habits, including their diet and smoking history. People who ate cruciferous vegetables, especially raw, were between 20 per cent and 55 per cent less likely to have cancer than those who did not or who only rarely ate these foods, Dr Tang told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The reduction in risk depended on the type of vegetable consumed and the duration and intensity of smoking. “A significant effect was only observed among the former smokers and current smokers. We didn’t see a significant association among those who never smoked,” Dr Tang said. “These findings are not strong enough to make a public health recommendation yet,” she added. And, she cautioned: “If you smoke long enough, nothing can help.”