Rah! Raw Broccoli: Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and Breast Cancer

A diet rich in cruciferous vegetables, like kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, can help fight breast cancer, according to research published in the journal Carcinogenesis. Studies in Milan show much the same effect.

Cruciferous veggies have high amounts of Indole-3-carbinol (I3C) , which has been shown in tests to combat the development of breast cancer cells. The Carcinogenesis researchers, from the University of California-Berkeley and the Kochi Medical School in Japan wrote that “Indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a naturally occurring compound of brassica vegetables, has promising anti-cancer properties.” The Italian studies used synthetic I3C and concluded that it “may be a considered a new, promising therapeutic agent for both ER+ and ER- breast cancer.”

So, the juice I started when I was first diagnosed, thanks to my sister Phyllis and the juicer she sent me, turns out to be a solid cancer fighter. My husband, God love his vegetable-slicing heart, juices 1-2 cups of kale, a half cup of cabbage, 2-3 ounces of wheatgrass, 2-3 carrots, and half an apple, to make roughly 2 cups of juice. Occasionally he adds a beet. It tastes about how you would expect, sort of like grazing in a swamp. I don’t care—if it keeps cancer away, I’ll even grow a cud. Lately, he has added about a quarter of a lemon and that makes the thing a whole lot more palatable.

I also have about a cup of raw broccoli every day with homemade hummus—my daughter Ellen’s recipe—for a mid-afternoon snack. That is actually tasty. Rah! Raw broccoli.

Read more about TNBC in my book, Surviving Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

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