The Cabbage Family includes: (i) the Cabbage; (ii) Broccoli; (iii) Cauliflower; (iv) Brussels sprouts; (v) Non-head forming cabbages.

These vegetables have been cultivated in European and Mediterranean civilazations for at least six thousand years. They were not cultivated only for food but primarily for their medicinal properties in ancient times.

Cabbage, in particular, was prized by the Greeks and Romans as a very medicinally important food, even taking over from garlic at one point as the favoured all -purpose remedy. "Praised by Pythagoras, baptised'the vegetable of a thousand virtues' by Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) who recommened it in the ...." state the authors. In addition other renown ancient scholars such Diogenes the Cynic and Marcus Porcius Cato were big fans.

"The spectular decrease in the risk of developig different cancers seen in infividuals with a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables suggest that these foods are an important source of phyto-chemical counpounds.

Indeed, of alledible plants, cruciferous vegetables are probably those that contain the largest variety of phtochemical compounds with anti-cancer activity.

In addition to veveral polyphenols found in other foods that protect against cancer (as discussed later in this book)," state the authors, "cruciferous begetables contain high concentrations of a group of compounds known as glucosinolates." These compounds fight cancer and keep you healthy.