“Eat your Broccoliâ€

My mom was always dishing out the nutritional advice during dinner. I was never sure if she really meant it, or it was some ploy to get me, my brother and sister to finish our plates. One popular refrain included, “Eat your broccoli. It’s good for youâ€.
It turns out that mom was right.
Broccoli belongs to the cruciferous family of vegetables which also includes arugula, cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, bok choy, collards, kohlrabi, mustard, turnip, red radish and watercress. Cruciferous vegetables are known cancer fighters because they contain powerful antioxidants called organosulfur compounds. Notice the wonderful pepper taste when you eat cruciferous vegetables? These are the organosulfur compounds that are so good for you. Women with the highest levels of these organosulfur compounds had a 50% reduced risk of developing breast cancer. Similarly, men who consume just three or more servings of cruciferous veggies per week had a 41% decreased risk of developing prostate cancer.
So listen to your mom, and eat your broccoli!
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Tags: Anti-aging, Antioxidants, Vegetables


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2 comments
I hear it’s best to let the cut florets sit for 10 minutes before cooking to increase the myrosinase (anti-cancer) activity.
Something interesting I just read about broccoli. Not everyone tastes broccoli the same way. It depends on the genes.
“Those individuals who had two copies of the protein that binds strongly to PTC thought broccoli and its relatives to be bitter. These people had inherited one copy of this gene from each of their parents. Another group of people inherited one gene whose protein bound PTC less strongly, and those individuals could tolerate broccoli, but they didn’t particularly like it (your author is probably in that subset). The third group inherited two copies of the gene that produce a protein that binds only weakly to PTC and they found broccoli and its relatives quite palatable.”
http://www.stanford.edu/~jpc/Chapter1.htm#_A_Taste_for
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