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02.09.2023

Carrots, lettuce & cabbage | These vegetables protect your liver

A diet rich in vegetables reduces the risk of liver cancer and the risk of dying from chronic liver disease. Especially carrots, cabbage vegetables such as broccoli and lettuce have a protective effect.

Study
Longgang Zhao, an epidemiologist at the University of South Carolina, analyzed data from 485,403 Americans who participated in the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retired Persons Diet and Health Study. Zhao was able to follow the study participants for an average of 15.5 consecutive years from the mid-1990s. When the study started, the participants were 50-71 years old.

947 participants developed liver cancer. Another 986 study participants developed chronic liver disease - a condition other than liver cancer - and died as a result. Zhao looked to see if he could find links between liver cancer and death due to chronic liver disease on the one hand and fruit and vegetable intake on the other.

Results
Zhao divided the study participants into 5 equally sized groups based on their fruit intake, but found an equal number of cases of liver cancer and death due to chronic liver disease in all groups. So fruit did not protect the liver.

Zhao divided the study participants into 5 equally sized groups based on their fruit intake, but found an equal number of cases of liver cancer and death due to chronic liver disease in all groups. So fruit did not protect the liver.

However, vegetables did protect, Zhao discovered when he divided the study participants into 5 equal groups based on their vegetable intake. The group with the highest vegetable intake had a 28 percent lower risk of liver cancer than the group with the lowest vegetable intake. The chance of dying from chronic liver disease was 18 percent less.

When Zhao looked at specific types of vegetables, he found that lettuce, broccoli and carrots in particular protected the liver. That is what the figure below tells you. Click on it for a larger version.

A high intake of lettuce and carrots reduced the risk of liver cancer by 36 and 27 percent, respectively. A high intake of broccoli and carrots reduced the risk of dying from chronic liver disease by 50 and 49 percent, respectively.

Mechanism
The researchers speculate that the protective effect of lettuce, cabbage vegetables and carrots is due to their bioactive components, such as isothiocyanates in cabbage and carotenoids in lettuce and carrots. In animal studies, these substances protect the liver.

Isothiocyanates help prevent liver cells from turning into cancer cells. Carotenoids inhibit inflammation and thereby reduce, among other things, the risk of scarring in the liver.

Source:
Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 Feb;117(2):278-85.

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