You've heard the same refrain ever since you sat stubbornly at the dinner table refusing to taste anything green: "Eat your vegetables, they're good for you". Well, your mother was right all along and it's not just good advice for growing children. Eating lots of fresh vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables, plays a key role in our continuing good health in every stage of life.

More and more medical professionals are recommending that women eat a more "Asian" diet as they reach menopause consisting of fish, soy and vegetables in abundance. Asian women seem to suffer fewer and less noticeable symptoms when they go through menopause. One of the reasons for this is thought to be the abundance of phytonutrients or plant nutrients in their diet.

These phytonutrients include phytoestrogens, which act something like human estrogen in the body but are much weaker. When your body stops producing sufficient levels of estrogen, these phytoestrogens can bind to the estrogen receptors and help to fool your body into thinking is still has higher estrogen levels. Increasing your intake of phyoestrogens can help to treat common menopausal symptoms like hot flashes or at least make them less severe. Soy is the most potent source of phytoestrogens, but they can also be found in cruciferous vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collard greens, cabbage, bok choy and kale.

One of the key roles of these foods is in fighting cancers that are more prevalent in post-menopausal women. The vegetables contain a compound called indole-3-carbinol (I3C). This compound is thought to stop the growth of cancer cells in various cells. It help against cancers of breast, endometrium, lung, colon, liver, colon and cervix.

I3C also reduces your risk of developing cancers by undergoing a natural conversion in the body to yet another potent anti-cancer compound, diindolylmethane (DIM). The connection between DIM and hormones like estrogen stems from similar characteristics between the two substances at the molecular level. In addition to stopping hormone-dependent cancer cells from multiplying, DIM inhibits breast cancer cells that are not hormone dependent. For instance, DIM has been shown to increase the body's production of interferon gamma. This works with your immune system to prevent the growth of tumors, making it more difficult for cancer to develop.

With breast cancer becoming a major health risk for menopausal women, it is encouraging to see that studies are proving a link between eating cruciferous vegetables and preventing breast cancer cells from surviving an forming tumors.

These cancer-prevention benefits can begin long before menopause, so it's a good idea to incorporate cruciferous vegetables into your diet throughout your life. As the risk of cancer increases, so does the importance of taking steps to prevent them.

So if you've been shunning broccoli for most of your life, there's no time like the present to give it a second chance. As with any nutrients derived from fresh foods, it's important not to overcook them. Cooking can allow the nutrients to escape or diminish their effectiveness. Ideally, you should eat some of your cruciferous vegetables raw. If that's too much for you to stomach, cook them lightly until they are just tender. Steaming is preferable to boiling, since the boiling water will absorb nutrients.

If you are having trouble finding ways to work the extra vegetables into your diet, here are some ideas to make things more palatable. Turn cabbage into coleslaw and serve it as a side dish with sandwiches. Cabbage rolls are also a nice change, although to increase the amount of cabbage you consume, try doubling up the leaves so you'll have more cabbage and less filling. Broccoli and cauliflower are great with dip. You'll find it easier to nibble on them if you have something tasty to dip them in. A pile of broccoli and cauliflower florets and a few ounces of hummus will make a filling and nutritious lunch. For people who have traditionally been broccoli and cauliflower haters, cheese sauce can help them to go down better. It works on young children, so why not try it yourself. Bok choy is easy to incorporate into a stir fry where the spices and other ingredients will make it blend in.

If you need more inspiration, check out some vegetarian cookbooks for ideas. Whatever it takes to incorporate more cruciferous vegetables into your diet, it's worth the effort. The benefits are becoming more clear with every medical study. There are so many health risks associated with growing older that it's very empowering to find something we can actually do without medication to improve our chances against something as devastating as cancer.

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