Cabbage

A vegetable, Brassica oleracea capitata, with a large, usually spherical head of tightly packed leaves, from the Old French word caboche, meaning "head." Germans call it kohl, and early Britons dubbed it cole (hence "coleslaw", meaning "sliced cabbage"). The plant's Latin name is caulia, meaning "stem" or, more accurately, "a very thick stalk." No one knows for sure when cabbage became more rounded, but when Caesar invaded Britain, he brought spherical cabbages as food for the troops; they're mentioned in his dairies as capitalae, "with heads."

Cabbage has a long and varied history, cultivated in the West since at least 400 BC and seen as a valuable medicine. It has been used since Greek physician Dioscorides' time (AD 40-90) as a digestive remedy and a joint tonic, and for skin problems and fever. Known as colewort in folk medicine, cabbage was a standby cure for all manner of family ills. During the Boxer uprising in China, scrolls from 1000 BC were discovered detailing the prescription of white cabbage as the only cure for infertility in males of advanced age. The Egyptians raised altars to it, and the Greeks and the Romans believed that cabbage cured every disease from paralysis to pleurisy. Aristotle, among others, followed the Egyptian practice of eating cabbage before banquets in belief it would keep the wine from fuddling his prudent academic head.

Cabbage was an important food during the Dark Ages, and by the Middle Ages, it was abundant, as we can see when we study the paintings of that period. The French, Germans and English traveled to America with cabbage seeds, and both the settlers and the Indians began planting and eating this vegetable. They boiled fresh cabbage with corned beef and onions, which evolved into a New England specialty. One of the most notable fans of Brassica was Thomas Jefferson, who campaigned for this vegetable's acceptance by his fellow Americans all his life. In his incredible garden at Monticello, Jefferson raised more than 22 different varieties of cabbage imported from all over the world. One of Jefferson's prides was the savoy cabbage.

Cabbage contains a harmful chemical called thioglucoside, which may adversely affect the thyroid gland, but is destroyed by cooking. Cabbage tends to release strong-smelling ammonias and hydrogen sulfide chemical compounds during cooking, a problem that can be reduced by steaming or cooking it in a small amount of water as quickly as possible, or by adding a few pieces of white bread to the cooking water.

The National Cancer Institute has designated cabbage a food with high cancer-fighting power. Two particularly potent cancer-fighting phytochemicals are available in cabbage: indoles, which help to metabolize estrogen thus protecting against breast cancer; and isothiocyanates, which help the body to detoxify carcinogens. Also, people who consume large quantities of cabbage have been shown to have low rates of colon cancer.

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