Eating your veggies can help you fight a number of cancers as well as other chronic diseases. Researchers at the University of California in Santa Barbara have recently discovered the cellular process that actually explains how cruciferous vegetables prevent breast cancer.

Cruciferous vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, arugula, watercress and horse radish – contain compounds called isothiocyanates, found to be responsible for cancer preventive and anti-carcinogenic activities. Broccoli has a particularly powerful isothiocyanate called sulforaphane, an effective cancer preventive agent capable of inhibiting the growth of human tumor cells, similar to how anti-cancer drugs work. Researchers note that including these veggies as part of a cancer treatment program would increase the effectiveness of eliminating tumor cells without increased toxicity.