Delicious Broccoli Facts

Broccoli Nutrition - Phytonutrient Super Food

broccoli head

Here are some Broccoli Facts and useful Broccoli nutrition information. Broccoli is an amazing vegetable and a really important addition to your diet. 

I love broccoli in my detox diet becaue it is a very low- calorie vegetable but packed with proven health benefits  such as dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants

From a nutritional aspect,  broccoli has amazing health benefits,  especially with it's phytonutrients that help protect against certain cancers.

The quality and adaptability of broccoli has improved so much. Broccoli is now an all season crop and some varieties have even been adapted to take temperatures of up to 40°C.

Broccoli Facts - Nutrition

The health and healing qualities of broccoli have really begun to gain the world’s attention. It ranks as one of the top super foods and on the list of healthiest food in the world. Broccoli is loaded with vitamin A, has as much calcium as milk, is high in vitamin C and dietary fiber, and is a good source of iron, lutein and a host of other beneficial elements.

Broccoli is packed with phytonurients including sulforaphane, indoles, thiocyanates and others as well as flavinoids. Plants produce these naturally occuring compounds to protect themselves against bacteria, viruses and fungi. Although not actually nutrients, phytonutrients are active and evidence suggests that they help protect against degenerative diseases and cancers.

Broccoli Facts and Cancer

Much research has and is being done to discover Broccoli facts and the potential  broccoli to stop the duplication of sick or mutated cells and thereby reduce the chance of cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Broccoli is part of the cruciferous vegetables group.  Regular broccoli consumption, has been shown to reduce the incidence of breast and prostate cancer, both prevalent in men and women worldwide. Broccoli nutrition has also been linked to the lowering of lung and colon cancers. In fact, young womem who eat a single helping of broccoli each week reduce their chances of developing breast cancer significantly.

Broccoli Facts - broccoli contains two unique phytochemicals – isothiocyanates and indoles. Isothiocyanates actually boost your liver’s ability to detoxify carcinogens to which you are exposed. Indoles may help prevent cancer by assisting your body to break down the hormones that cause breast cancer cell proliferation.

~Remember that we are refering to cancer prevention and not cancer treatment.~

Isothiocyanates can be destroyed by cooking, but researchers at Illinois University discovered that sulphoraphane, the beneficial product of isothiocyanate, is lined to a sugar molecule by a sulphur bond. When an enzyme breaks this bond, a protein links onto the sulphur and renders the sulphoraphane inactive. They discovered that by steaming the broccoli for 3-4 minutes, this protein is destroyed, thereby leaving the sulphoraphane to do its anti-cancer duties. At this stage of cooking, broccoli is described as tough-tender.

An alternative way is to keep the broccoli at 60°C for 10 minutes, but this is more difficult. The indoles are also more readily available after cooking. This valuable information was only discovered a few years ago, so we should now all be eating our weekly broccoli to maximize our body’s cancer fighting abilities.

UCLA researchers recently discovered that broccoli may play a role in rejuvenating the body’s immune system which weakens as people age. It is quite probable that more good broccoli facts will be discovered as further research is done top super foods and on the list of healthiest food in the world. Broccoli is loaded with vitamin A, has as much calcium as milk, is high in vitamin C and dietary fiber, and is a good source of iron, lutein and a host of other beneficial elements.

Grow Organic Broccoli

broccoli

~Is growing you own broccoli worth it?~ Growing your own broccoli is immensly rewarding and you get to monitor all the use of soil additives and pest chemicals that would have otherwise been out of your control. Its also really convenient to have fresh-picked broccoli. 

The advantage of growing your own broccoli is that you are able to harvest at peak freshness for maximum taste and nutrition and if you grow sufficient amounts, you will tend to eat more and reap the health benefits. You will also be able to eat the delicious leaves which are not readily available in supermarkets. When it comes to setting priorities for your planting programme, broccoli should be at the top of the list given the health properties, productivity and time to harvest. Your health will benefit greatly from it

Harvesting takes place 60-70 days after sowing, making it a relatively quick crop with good production. Here broccoli comes into its own as, after the main heads are harvested, side shoots develop, which effectively extend the harvest season as you can also get a couple of side shoot pickings.

The leaves are also a very tasty, nutritious vegetable which rivals spinach for taste.

Some farmers make more money by selling broccoli leaves on the market than they get for the heads! You can effectively get two vegetables from one picking by eating the broccoli heads and “spinach” leaves at one time. And there is more! When you are finished with the main heads, side shoots and leaves, the stems can be harvested, peeled and the delicious nutritious stalk centers eaten. These stems can also be thinly sliced and included raw in salads.

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