Health Farm

-- Immature broccoli plants contain 30-to-50 times the concentration of protective chemicals found in mature broccoli plants

When a broccoli plant is around three days old, it starts to grow little sprouts that resemble alfalfa or bean sprouts. Eat them by the fistful.

Protective chemicals, called isothiocyanates, packed into broccoli sprouts are well known as potent stimulators of natural detoxifying enzymes associated with a lower risk of cancer.

They’re also present in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, such as cauliflower, cabbage, and kale – only in lower concentrations.

Broccoli sprouts’ chemical potency is especially good news for the 90% of Americans who eat insufficient vegetables, offering fussy eaters an easier way to get at least some of the protective benefits of a high-vegetable diet.

For example, epidemiological studies suggest that a person must eat about two pounds of broccoli and similar vegetables a week to halve the risk of colon cancer. The same reduction in risk theoretically might be had with a weekly intake of just a little over an ounce of sprouts.

Lab studies show that extracts of isothiocyanates (called sulforaphane) from sprouts markedly reduced the incidence, size, and number of mammary tumours in laboratory rats exposed to a standard carcinogen.

These enzymes operate in cells to break down and eliminate noxious compounds before they do damage to the cell’s D.N.A. and set the stage for cancer.

Get sprouting!