Scientists at the Hormone Research Institute in New York, USA, have discovered that the reason Chinese and Japanese women have a much lower incidence of breast cancer than Western women is because they often eat cabbage.
Surveys show that the annual incidence of breast cancer per 100,000 women is: 6 in China, 21 in Japan, 48 in Northern Europe, and 91 in the United States.
Scientists at this institute have found that cabbage contains a compound that helps break down estrogen linked to breast cancer. This compound is called indole-3-carbinol and accounts for about 1% of the weight of cabbage.
If women eat 0.5 kilograms of cabbage daily, they can absorb 500 milligrams of this compound, which increases the amount of an important enzyme in the body that helps break down estrogen.