Broccoli Helps Fight Liver Cancer, New Research Suggests

Amy Taylor March 11, 2016

Eating broccoli three to five times per week can help cut your risk of developing liver cancer particularly among people whose diets are high in sugar, according to new research. Scientists say it also slashes the risk of breast, prostate and colon cancer.

Eating broccoli may also aid in countering the development of fatty liver or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can cause malfunction of the liver and lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver cancer with a high mortality rate.

’The normal story about broccoli and health is that it can protect against a number of different cancers. But nobody had looked at liver cancer.’ says Professor Elizabeth Jeffery - researcher from Illinois University in the United States.

In previous research, broccoli was found to contain bioactive compounds that may impede the accumulation of fat in the liver and protect against NAFLD.

’There are actually two ways of getting fatty liver: one, by eating a high-fat, high-sugar diet and the other by drinking too much alcohol.’ says Jeffery. ’We found that the Westernised diet did increase fatty liver, but we saw that the broccoli protected against it.

Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable that is considered one of the best superfoods there are. It is packed with essential nutrients which have detoxification and cholesterol-lowering benefits. Research has also shown that it is a powerful natural remedy for inflammation.

This vegetable isn’t hard to find. So there should be no reason why we should not incorporate it in our diet. Plus, it tastes great too! Researchers in the new study note that eating broccoli freshly chopped or lightly steamed is the best way to get to the vegetables’ compound, sulforaphane to help fight an unhealthy liver.

Source of this article:

Broccoli ’helps lower the risk of liver cancer’: Vegetable could reduce number and size of cancer nodules among those who have a diet high in fat and sugar