It is said that cruciferous vegetables plays a significant role in maintaining healthy stomach and this also affects the incidence of stomach cancer.
Let’s explore, how essential is to include the cruciferous vegetables in the diet for cancer patients:
In the last few decades the mortality rate due to cancer is rising throughout the world at an exponential rate. There are eight leading cancers which together account for approximately 60% of cancer deaths all around the world. One of these cancers is stomach cancer.
Highlights:
Epidemiology of stomach cancer
An association between vegetables and stomach cancer
What are cruciferous vegetables?
Do cruciferous vegetables fight against stomach cancer?
Epidemiology of stomach cancer
Worldwide, stomach cancer is the second major cause of cancer deaths. This cancer is hard to detect in its early stages. This may be attributable to the fact that symptoms of stomach cancer mimic with those of stomach ulcers and other infections.
According to one of the reports of the World Health Organization in 2018, gastric cancer results in 783,000 deaths worldwide and the number is still rising.
Researchers have found a significant association of diet patterns with stomach cancer. According to the reports, salty foods tend toward damage the stomach lining and become a prominent reason to enhance Helicobacter pylori infection. Both these incidences related to higher odds of stomach cancer.
An association between vegetables and stomach cancer
In other reports, the link between fresh vegetables/fruits and stomach cancer have been also found. The more intake of fresh foods and decreased intake of salty, smoked food associated with declined stomach cancer incidences. Especially, the cruciferous vegetables exhibit a special association with the healthy environment of the stomach.
What are cruciferous vegetables?
Cruciferous vegetables are a famous class of vegetables, named after their cross-shaped flowers.
Sources of cruciferous vegetables include: Cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, garden cress, kale, turnips, kohlrabi and arugula.
Do cruciferous vegetables fight against stomach cancer?
Various researches have been found a significant role of these cruciferous vegetables in the context of reducing the risk of stomach cancer.
The exact reasons implicit these relationships are uncertain. Crucifers are enriched with potent minerals, vitamins, dietary fiber, folate, selenium, phytoestrogens, and phytochemicals. These nutritional content together might be the reason behind their significant cancer-preventive properties.
Dietary fibers present in these vegetables can help to reduce the glycemic load, lower the incidence of hyperinsulinemia, and hinder the replicative potential of cancer cells by delaying cell cycle progression.
Furthermore, the phytochemicals present in these vegetables such as glucosinolates are also played an essential role in lowering stomach cancer incidences. These phytochemicals in the stomach converted into Isothiocyanates (ITC), which shows significant carcinogenic properties. These ITCs also act as a bactericide and substantially reduces the H.pylori infection in the stomach, which is one of the major causes of stomach cancer.
Therefore, it can be said that the diet for cancer patients including cruciferous vegetables can help prevent the odds of stomach cancer and might be explored as a potent chemoprotective lifestyle intervention.
Important Note: Cooking cruciferous vegetables can reduce its ITC content.
In one of the recently conducted case-control study, it was found that the higher intake of raw cruciferous vegetables including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower inversely associated with stomach cancer. Various other studies validate that raw cruciferous vegetables are more beneficial than cooked ones in stomach cancer.
# Always include cruciferous vegetables in your diet to protect your stomach.
You can also take vitamins for cancer management, for more information, click here!
