Cabbage is one of the better vegetables you can put on your plate, and one of the most oversold. The real cabbage plant benefits are ordinary and reliable: a cup of it delivers about a third of your daily vitamin C for 22 calories, more than half a day’s vitamin K, and enough fiber to matter, at a lower cost per serving than almost anything else in the produce aisle.
The dramatic claims are a different story. Cabbage juice healing an ulcer in three weeks traces back to a single uncontrolled study from 1949. The cancer-prevention story is strong in the lab and disappointing in humans. And the old warning that cabbage causes goiter is technically true at a quantity almost nobody eats.
What’s actually in a cabbage plant
Per 100 grams of raw green cabbage — a bit more than a cup of chopped leaves [USDA, 2019]:
| Nutrient | Per 100 g raw | Per 1 cup chopped (89 g) | % of daily target |
| Calories | 25 kcal | 22 kcal | — |
| Vitamin C | 36.6 mg | 32.6 mg | 36% men / 43% women |
| Vitamin K | 76 µg | 68 µg | 57% men / 76% women |
| Fiber | 2.5 g | 2.2 g | — |
| Folate | 43 µg | 38 µg | — |
| Potassium | 170 mg | 151 mg | — |
| Protein | 1.28 g | 1.1 g | — |
| Fat | 0.1 g | 0.09 g | — |
| Water | 92.2 g | — | — |
Daily targets used above: vitamin C RDA 90 mg for men, 75 mg for women [NIH ODS, 2025]; vitamin K adequate intake 120 µg for men, 90 µg for women [NIH ODS, 2021].
Two of those numbers correct claims that circulate widely, including in the earlier version of this page. Cabbage is not a protein food — at 1.28 g per 100 g it holds about a third of what’s sometimes attributed to it. And it isn’t “rich in sugars.” Total sugar comes to 3.2 g per 100 g, which puts cabbage among the lower-carbohydrate vegetables you can eat.
Color changes the profile more than you’d expect:
| Per 100 g raw | Green cabbage | Red cabbage |
| Calories | 25 | 31 |
| Vitamin C | 36.6 mg | 57 mg |
| Vitamin K | 76 µg | 38.2 µg |
| Beta-carotene | 42 µg | 670 µg |
| Folate | 43 µg | 18 µg |
| Potassium | 170 mg | 243 mg |
Red cabbage carries roughly sixteen times the beta-carotene and half again the vitamin C, but half the vitamin K and less than half the folate. Alternating the two is a reasonable habit if you eat cabbage often — and a practical one if you’re watching vitamin K, which we’ll come back to.
Cabbage plant benefits backed by strong evidence
These four aren’t exciting, which is rather the point. They’re the ones you can count on.
A serious vitamin C source. A cup of chopped green cabbage supplies 32.6 mg, over a third of the adult RDA, and red cabbage delivers about 50 mg for the same volume [USDA, 2019]. Vitamin C is water-soluble and destroyed by heat, so raw cabbage in a slaw or a fast stir-fry preserves far more than a long boil does [NIH ODS, 2025]. Anyone who smokes needs an extra 35 mg daily on top of the standard RDA, which makes cheap high-C vegetables genuinely useful. Cabbage holds its own among the top vitamin C rich foods, most of which cost considerably more per serving.
Unusually high in vitamin K. One cup of raw chopped green cabbage covers well over half the adult adequate intake, and half a cup of cooked cabbage supplies about 82 µg [USDA, 2019]. Vitamin K is required for blood clotting and for the proteins that build bone. This is a real benefit for most people and a genuine caution for one specific group — see the interactions section below.
It fills you up for almost nothing. Cabbage is 92% water, with 2.5 g of fiber and 25 calories per 100 g [USDA, 2019]. A large plate of it costs you roughly what a slice of apple does. Bulk, fiber, water, near-zero energy density: the least glamorous and most dependable thing about this vegetable.
Cost and keeping quality. Not a nutritional claim, but a health one. A whole cabbage keeps for weeks in a refrigerator, survives rough handling, and costs a fraction of what tender leafy greens do per serving. A vegetable you’ll actually buy and finish beats a superior one that rots in the drawer.
Benefits where the evidence is limited or mixed
Most cabbage articles blur these together with the section above. They shouldn’t.
Cancer prevention: strong in the lab, inconsistent in people
Cabbage belongs to the Brassicaceae or Cruciferae family alongside broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts. These plants contain glucosinolates, sulfur compounds that break down during chopping and chewing into isothiocyanates and indoles — including sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol, the two studied most for anticancer activity [NCI, 2012].
In cell and animal studies those compounds do impressive things: protect DNA from damage, inactivate carcinogens, trigger cancer cell death. In humans the picture weakens sharply. The National Cancer Institute’s review found that cohort studies of prostate cancer showed little or no association, colorectal studies generally found no association, most lung studies reported little association, and a breast cancer meta-analysis found none [NCI, 2012].
The Linus Pauling Institute arrived at a similar place from a different angle: inverse associations between cruciferous intake and cancer risk held up when case-control studies were pooled, but not when prospective cohort studies were pooled [LPI, 2017]. That pattern usually points to recall bias in the weaker study design rather than a real protective effect.
Eating cabbage is part of a vegetable-rich pattern that does associate with lower cancer risk overall, and there is a plausible mechanism. No honest reading of the human data supports “cabbage prevents cancer.”
One correction worth making: the anticancer interest in cabbage has never been about carotene. Green cabbage contains 42 µg of beta-carotene per 100 g, which is negligible. The research is about glucosinolates. For how individual foods actually grade against cancer risk, see our guide to a cancer-preventing diet.
The cabbage juice and ulcer story
This claim is everywhere, and it comes from one place. In 1949, Garnett Cheney published a paper in California Medicine reporting that 13 patients with peptic ulcers who drank fresh cabbage juice healed remarkably fast: average crater healing time of 10.4 days for the seven duodenal ulcer patients, against 37 days reported in the literature for 62 patients on standard therapy, and 7.3 days for the six gastric ulcer patients against 42 days for six historical comparisons [Cheney, 1949].
Those numbers look spectacular. Four things should temper them.
There was no control group. Cheney compared his patients against healing times reported in the literature for other people treated elsewhere, which is among the least reliable comparisons in clinical research.
Thirteen patients is very few. Six gastric ulcer patients weighed against six historical controls is not a basis for a treatment claim.
The study predates the cause. Helicobacter pylori was not identified as the driver of most peptic ulcers until the 1980s. Standard 1949 ulcer therapy meant bland diets, antacids, and bed rest — which makes the comparison arm weak rather than the cabbage strong.
And the mechanism was never established. Cheney credited an “anti-peptic ulcer factor” he called vitamin U. Vitamin U is not a vitamin. It is S-methylmethionine, a sulfur compound, and it does not appear among the vitamin fact sheets maintained by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, which run from vitamin A through vitamin K [NIH ODS, 2026].
One thread of newer research keeps the underlying idea alive. A 2009 trial gave 48 people infected with H. pylori either 70 g of sulforaphane-rich broccoli sprouts daily or alfalfa sprouts, for eight weeks. The broccoli group showed significantly reduced H. pylori markers and gastritis measures — which returned to baseline two months after they stopped eating them [Yanaka, 2009]. That is broccoli sprouts rather than cabbage, at a standardized glucoraphanin dose, with a temporary effect. It justifies further study of the compound class. It is not evidence that cabbage juice heals ulcers.
If you have an ulcer, the treatment is H. pylori testing and eradication, or acid suppression, prescribed by a doctor. Cabbage in your diet is fine alongside that. It is not a substitute. Our review of herbs for stomach issues sorts the digestive remedies with real support from the ones without.
Blood sugar
Older herbals list cabbage as hypoglycemic. A 2021 review in the Journal of Food Science does describe several mechanisms by which cabbage compounds could act on glucose regulation [Uuh-Narvaez, 2021], but that review operates at the level of bioactive compounds and animal models. Searching for human trials of cabbage or cabbage juice lowering blood glucose turned up none; the available work is cell and rodent research.
Here’s what is defensible. Cabbage is very low in carbohydrate — 5.8 g per 100 g, of which 2.5 g is fiber — high in volume, and it displaces higher-glycemic foods on a plate. That is a real advantage for anyone managing blood sugar, and it’s why cabbage sits comfortably among diabetic-friendly foods. But it works by being a bulky low-carbohydrate vegetable, not by lowering glucose pharmacologically. Nobody should adjust diabetes medication on the strength of a cabbage.
Sauerkraut and fermented cabbage
Fermenting cabbage adds live lactic acid bacteria and shifts the nutrition. Canned sauerkraut runs 19 calories and 2.9 g of fiber per 100 g and keeps a useful 14.7 mg of vitamin C — alongside 661 mg of sodium, which works out to roughly 939 mg in a one-cup serving [USDA, 2019]. The FDA advises adults stay under 2,300 mg of sodium a day, and average intake already runs about 3,400 mg [FDA, 2024]. One cup of sauerkraut is therefore about 40% of the daily ceiling.
Fermented vegetables are a reasonable thing to eat. Treat sauerkraut as a condiment-sized portion rather than a side dish, check labels if you’re watching sodium, and know that pasteurized jarred kraut contains no live cultures at all.
Cabbage leaves on the skin: what the trials found
The traditional poultice has actually been tested, which is more than most folk remedies can claim. The results are modest and mixed.
Breast engorgement. A 2020 Cochrane review covering 21 trials found that cold cabbage leaves may reduce breast pain compared with routine care (mean difference −1.03 points on a 0–10 scale, 95% CI −1.53 to −0.53, 152 women) and compared with cold gel packs (−0.63 points, 95% CI −1.09 to −0.17), but graded both findings very low certainty. Breast hardness improved similarly at low certainty, and more women were satisfied with cold cabbage leaves than with routine care (RR 1.42, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.64). The reviewers could not say whether cold cabbage leaves beat room-temperature ones, or whether cabbage leaf extract cream beats placebo cream [Zakarija-Grkovic & Stewart, 2020].
Read that carefully. It is a signal at the weakest grade of evidence Cochrane assigns, and part of the effect may simply be that a cold compress helps. Cabbage leaves are cheap and low-risk, so trying them for engorgement is reasonable. Engorgement that persists, or comes with fever or a red painful area, needs a clinician — mastitis is a different problem.
Knee osteoarthritis. An 81-person randomized trial compared four weeks of daily cabbage leaf wraps against topical diclofenac gel and against usual care. The wraps beat usual care on pain (difference −12.1 on the trial’s visual analog scale, 95% CI −23.1 to −1.0, p=0.033) but did not beat diclofenac gel (−8.6, 95% CI −21.5 to 4.4, p=0.190). Two adverse events occurred across the active groups; the wraps were otherwise well tolerated [Lauche, 2016].
One small unblinded trial whose comparison arm was “nothing” is weak evidence. Beating no treatment in an unblinded pain study is close to the minimum a placebo would achieve. If you want to try a cabbage wrap on a sore knee alongside your actual treatment, though, the risk is close to zero.
What older herbals claim for cabbage poultices on infected wounds, boils, varicose ulcers, eczema, and acne has no comparable trial support. Do not put cabbage leaves on an open or infected wound in place of proper wound care.
How to cook cabbage without wasting it
Boiling is the worst thing you can do to a cabbage, twice over. It leaches out vitamin C, which is both water-soluble and heat-sensitive [NIH ODS, 2025]. It also inactivates myrosinase, the enzyme that converts glucosinolates into the isothiocyanates the cancer research cares about — and boiling strips glucosinolate content far more aggressively than steaming, microwaving, or stir-frying [LPI, 2017].
- Eat some of it raw: slaw, a shaved salad, a crunchy garnish on tacos.
- When you cook it, steam, microwave, sauté, or roast. Brief and hot beats long and wet.
- Chop or shred it a few minutes before cooking. Cutting releases myrosinase, so a head start lets some conversion happen before the heat arrives.
- If you do boil it, use the liquid. Soup keeps what the pot water takes.
- Buy heads rather than bags. A whole cabbage lasts weeks; pre-shredded cabbage loses vitamin C quickly through all those cut surfaces.
Side effects, interactions, and who should be careful
Cabbage is a food, and for most people the honest safety section is short. Three groups need specifics, and one traditional dosing instruction deserves a direct warning.
Gas and bloating. Cruciferous vegetables appear on the NIDDK’s list of common gas-producing foods, alongside legumes, certain fruits, and dairy [NIDDK, 2021]. Cabbage ferments in the colon and produces gas in nearly everyone; in people with IBS it can be a genuine trigger. Cooking it, keeping portions smaller, and increasing intake gradually all help. If cabbage reliably causes pain rather than mild bloating, that’s worth raising with a doctor rather than pushing through.
Warfarin and other vitamin K antagonists. This is the interaction that matters. A cup of raw chopped cabbage carries 68 µg of vitamin K, and half a cup of cooked cabbage about 82 µg [USDA, 2019] — meaningful fractions of the daily adequate intake. Sudden changes in vitamin K intake can raise or lower warfarin’s anticoagulant effect [NIH ODS, 2021], and standard patient guidance is to avoid large amounts of leafy green vegetables and keep intake consistent [MedlinePlus, 2026].
The rule is consistency rather than avoidance: if you eat cabbage twice a week, keep eating it twice a week, and tell the clinic managing your INR before you change your diet. Red cabbage, at 38.2 µg per 100 g, carries about half the vitamin K of green.
Thyroid conditions. The old goiter warning is not invented, but it is badly scaled. Glucosinolate breakdown products can interfere with iodine uptake, and very high cruciferous intakes have produced hypothyroidism in animals. In humans, 150 g a day of cooked Brussels sprouts for four weeks produced no adverse effect on thyroid function, and the risk appears concentrated in people who are already iodine-deficient [LPI, 2017].
At the far extreme, a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine documents myxedema coma following ingestion of raw bok choy [Chu & Seltzer, 2010] — a single published case, and one whose full text was behind a paywall for this article, so no quantity is quoted here.
If you have hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s, normal culinary amounts of cooked cabbage are not a problem. Very large daily quantities of raw cruciferous vegetables sustained over months are worth discussing with your doctor. Cooking reduces the effect.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Cabbage as a food is safe and useful in pregnancy; the folate content counts slightly in its favor, and it belongs on any list of folate-rich foods. Concentrated cabbage juice regimens, cabbage supplements, and glucosinolate extracts have not been tested in pregnancy and should be avoided. For breastfeeding, note what the Cochrane evidence actually studied: cabbage leaves as a short-term treatment for engorgement, not as an ongoing practice. If you’re using them while your supply is still establishing, check with a lactation consultant first.
About “a glass of juice before every meal.” Older herbals — including the source behind the earlier version of this page — recommend 100–200 ml of fresh cabbage juice three or four times daily. That is up to 800 ml of raw cruciferous juice a day, a far higher glucosinolate and vitamin K exposure than eating cabbage as a vegetable, taken for a condition that now has effective medical treatment. No modern trial supports that regimen. If you want cabbage’s benefits, eat cabbage.
When to see a doctor rather than reach for a vegetable
Get medical care promptly for:
- Vomiting blood, or vomit that looks like coffee grounds
- Black, tarry, or bloody stools
- Severe or sudden abdominal pain
- Difficulty swallowing, or food sticking on the way down
- Unintentional weight loss alongside digestive symptoms
- Persistent heartburn or indigestion lasting more than a couple of weeks, especially after age 55
- Breast pain with fever, redness, or flu-like symptoms while breastfeeding
- A wound that is spreading, hot, streaking, or accompanied by fever
The first five can signal a bleeding ulcer or something more serious. All of them need assessment rather than home treatment.
| Health disclaimer: This article is for general information and education. It is not medical advice and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment by a qualified healthcare professional. Do not use cabbage, cabbage juice, or cabbage leaf applications in place of prescribed treatment for an ulcer, a thyroid condition, diabetes, mastitis, or a wound. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist before making significant dietary changes if you take warfarin or another anticoagulant, have a thyroid condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or manage a chronic illness with medication. If you have symptoms that concern you, seek care rather than waiting to see whether a food helps. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is raw or cooked cabbage better for you?
Both, for different reasons. Raw keeps more vitamin C and leaves myrosinase intact, so more glucosinolates convert to isothiocyanates. Cooked is gentler on your gut and reduces the thyroid concern. Eating some of each across the week is the sensible answer — and when you do cook it, steam, sauté, or microwave rather than boil [LPI, 2017; NIH ODS, 2025].
Does cabbage juice really heal stomach ulcers?
There is no good evidence that it does. The claim rests on one uncontrolled 13-patient study from 1949 that compared its patients against healing times published elsewhere, decades before H. pylori was identified as the cause of most ulcers [Cheney, 1949]. Ulcers are treatable — see a doctor for testing and proper treatment.
Is red cabbage healthier than green?
Red has more vitamin C (57 mg versus 36.6 mg per 100 g) and roughly sixteen times the beta-carotene, plus the anthocyanins that give it its color. Green has twice the vitamin K and more than twice the folate [USDA, 2019]. Neither wins outright, so alternate them. If you take warfarin, it’s useful to know red carries about half the vitamin K load. More on carotenoid sources in our guide to the best sources of vitamin A.
Do cabbage leaves actually work for breast engorgement?
Possibly, at very low certainty. A 2020 Cochrane review found cold cabbage leaves may reduce breast pain and hardness compared with routine care, but the reviewers could not draw firm conclusions and could not distinguish cold cabbage leaves from room-temperature ones [Zakarija-Grkovic & Stewart, 2020]. They are cheap and low-risk to try. Fever, redness, or worsening pain means calling a clinician.
Does cabbage cause goiter?
Not at normal intakes. Glucosinolate breakdown products can interfere with iodine uptake, and very high intakes have caused hypothyroidism in animals, but a human study of 150 g a day of cooked Brussels sprouts over four weeks found no adverse thyroid effect [LPI, 2017]. The risk concentrates in people who are iodine-deficient and eating large amounts raw. Cooking reduces it.
References
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- U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central: Cabbage, cooked, boiled, drained, without salt (SR Legacy 169976). Published 1 April 2019. View source
- U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central: Cabbage, red, raw (SR Legacy 169977). Published 1 April 2019. View source
- U.S. Department of Agriculture. FoodData Central: Sauerkraut, canned, solids and liquids (SR Legacy 169279). Published 1 April 2019. View source
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- Zakarija-Grkovic I, Stewart F. Treatments for breast engorgement during lactation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020 Sep 18;9(9):CD006946. DOI 10.1002/14651858.CD006946.pub4. PMID 32944940. PMCID PMC8094412. View source
- Lauche R, Gräf N, Cramer H, Al-Abtah J, Dobos G, Saha FJ. Efficacy of cabbage leaf wraps in the treatment of symptomatic osteoarthritis of the knee: a randomized controlled trial. The Clinical Journal of Pain. 2016 Nov;32(11):961–971. DOI 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000352. PMID 26889617. View source
- Chu M, Seltzer TF. Myxedema coma induced by ingestion of raw bok choy. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010 May 20;362(20):1945–1946. DOI 10.1056/NEJMc0911005. PMID 20484407. View source
- Uuh-Narvaez JJ, Segura-Campos MR. Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata): a food with functional properties aimed to type 2 diabetes prevention and management. Journal of Food Science. 2021 Nov;86(11):4775–4798. DOI 10.1111/1750-3841.15939. PMID 34658044. View source
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Eating, Diet, & Nutrition for Gas in the Digestive Tract. Last reviewed June 2021. View source
- MedlinePlus. Warfarin. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Last revised 15 March 2026. View source
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