The science behind Vitamin C loaded sauerkraut. Plus, it's impact on cancer, heart disease and inflammation.
By Kelan Ern Updated: `02/07/2025
Image generated by Canva AI
Let's go back in time for a moment...
During Christopher Columbus’s era, long-distance voyages were risky business.
One challenge was nutrition. Ships didn’t have a good way to preserve food for long stretches of time. They couldn’t carry dairy or fresh meat because they would go rancid quickly. Same with most fruit and vegetables.
Even bringing fresh water was a problem because it would sit in wooden tanks below deck and algae would grow in it. So they often brought weak beer instead to stay hydrated.
Because of these limits, scurvy was a real problem.
Between 1500 and 1800 it is estimated that scurvy killed over 2 million sailors. Some people knew that limes and lemons could prevent the disease (because of their vitamin C content). But these fruits were too expensive and if they went bad on the ship, they could spoil the other food onboard as well. Then in the 1760’s Captain James Cook stumbled across a solution.
He hauled 7,860 pounds of sauerkraut onto his ship and during his voyage not a single sailor on his ship died from scurvy. Sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) was a perfect solution. It was cheap, it could be stored for months at room temperature, and it was loaded with vitamin C. In fact, a 2014 study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition found that just 1 cup of fermented cabbage can have 695 mg of vitamin C.
That’s roughly 12x more vitamin C than an orange (52.2mg).
Even if you despise sauerkraut though, cabbage also packs a health-boosting punch that’s hard to beat:
Three Benefits of Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut is Loaded with Vitamin C
Vitamin C helps make collagen in the body, helps absorb iron, and is a strong antioxidant. A 2010 study found that vitamin C helps protect that body from free radical damage which is linked to cancer and other chronic diseases.
In fact, studies from the journal Oncology, Journal of Cancer and Journal of the National Cancer Institute have found lower cancer risk for those who eat more foods high in vitamin C. A 2014 meta-analysis in Scientific Reports found a 7% reduction in lung cancer risk for every daily 100-mg increase in vitamin C.
Lung cancer is not the only type of cancer it may protect against though.
In 2013, the journal Annals of Oncology published a meta-analysis of over 1.29 million people and found that consuming high amounts of cruciferous vegetables (such as cabbage) decreased the risk of colon cancer by 18%. Another 2017 study in Current Developments in Nutrition found these foods also decreased the risk of breast cancer.
Just one cup of cabbage has 54% (32.6 mg) of your daily value of vitamin C.
However, one cup of red cabbage has 85% (50.7 mg)! That’s about as much vitamin C as a small orange.
Sauerkraut Drops Inflammation
Inflammation is linked to a whole host of health problems including rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, cancer and type 2 Diabetes.
And the majority of the population eats foods that boost inflammation throughout the body. One way to combat this is with cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage. Cabbage is full of antioxidants that decrease inflammation in the body.
A 2014 study in the Journal of Nutrition found that healthy subjects who consumed high amounts of cruciferous vegetables and apiaceous vegetables (such as carrots, celery, parsnips, parsley) decreased inflammatory markers (serum IL-6) in the blood by 19-20%.
Another 2016 study in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research found that purple cabbage in particular decreased inflammatory markers in the gut by 22-40%.
A 2014 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics looked at over 1,000 Chinese women.
Researchers found that those who consumed the most cruciferous vegetables had significantly lower inflammation, compared to those who consumed the least.
Sauerkraut Protects Your Heart
Step into a grocery store and you’ll notice green cabbage, red cabbage, purple cabbage and others. While all of them have health-boosting qualities, red and purple contain more health-boosting compounds known as anthocyanins. In fact, the darker the cabbage the higher the anthocyanin levels.
Besides giving it strong colors, research shows that anthocyanins also protect the heart.
A 2013 study of over 93,000 women found that those who ate the most anthocyanin-containing foods had a significantly less risk of a heart attack.
A 2014 meta-analysis of 344,488 people found something similar. For every 10mg of flavonoids (such as anthocyanins) the risk of heart disease dropped by 5%.
Other research shows that higher amounts of anthocyanins not only reduces the risk of heart disease but also helps drop blood pressure as well.
Besides anthocyanins, cabbage also protects the heart with phytosterols and soluble fiber.
According to Mayo Clinic, soluble fiber helps lower LDL cholesterol by sticking to it in the digestive tract which stops it from getting absorbed into the bloodstream. Phytosterols are plant compounds that also stop cholesterol from being absorbed. The British Journal of Nutrition found that just 1 gram of phytosterols can reduce LDL by 5%. Cabbage can be eaten raw, cooked, roasted, or fermented into sauerkraut. There are many ways to eat this near-magical vegetable, find the way that makes sense to you and get cracking.
Onward,
Kelan Ern
P.S.For more ways to transform your health and fitness, check out a free issue ofMind-Body Breakthroughs. Each month features one of the fittest people on the planet and their tips, strategies and mindsets for helping you breakthrough to the next level.