Do vegetables protect you from cancer? Probably not!

In my 20’s I did a consulting project on cancer care for a major biotech firm.  After reading all the literature from the American Cancer Society, I decided to start eating mounds of broccoli and cauliflower.  Later I even went vegetarian.  Though this last step also had something to do with a girl, I was convinced that I was extending my life.

But was any of it true?  George Johnson at the NYT says that all of those potential links between diet and cancer have been debunked.

I have a tendency to jump on the latest dietary fad if the health connections sound reasonable to me.  But this probably isn’t justified.  I know I didn’t enjoy eating very much in my 20’s.  It seemed like a simple case of delaying gratification – trading tasty food now for happy, healthy years in my 90’s.  I’m still hoping for all those years, but I’ve become less of a health food Nazi.  And I’m much more skeptical of groups like ACS that want to influence my behavior.