How To POWER UP Your Broccoli

November 16, 2011 By Bro

Broccoli, Cruciferous Vegetables - Increase and Power Up Anti-Cancer Properties

Here’s an amazing fact about broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables…

You can greatly enhance their cancer fighting abilities if you eat them together with certain foods.

What are these foods, and how do they help broccoli fight cancer?

~~~

First of all, let’s discuss the valuable anti-cancer fighting properties of broccoli.

Broccoli contains suforaphane, a potent anti-cancer molecule. But suforaphane must be detached from its parent molecule, glucoraphanin, before it can be utilized by the body.

What helps detach these two? The answer is myrosinase, an enzyme that “hydrolyzes” these two connected molecules, allowing the two to separate.

This means that the more myrosinase-containing foods you eat with broccoli, the higher the levels of suforaphane wil be released within your digestive system and made available to your body.

Here is the list of foods that contain the valuable enzyme, myrosinase:

arugula
cabbage
watercress
mustard
horseradish
wasabi
brussel sprouts
broccoli sprouts

Adding these foods together with broccoli, cauliflower, kale and other cruciferous vegetables will “power up” and potentize their cancer fight abilities.

Proof

An experiment conducted by Elizabeth Jeffrey at the University of Illinois, combining myrosinase-containing foods with broccoli powder (low in enzymes), boosted their cancer-fighting absorption rate and effectiveness by an astounding 200 to 300%.

This was proof of the valuable synergistic interactions when combining these foods.

The reason this is particularly important is that most people cook their broccoli and cruciferous vegetables. Cooking can destroy broccoli’s naturally occurring enzymes such as myrosinase. In other words, the more cooking, the more loss of nutrients and disease fighting factors.

Mixing the foods listed above with broccoli restored the all important enzyme levels so that the anti-cancer factors could be released.

Of course to maximize the intake of nutrients avoid the loss of anti-cancer components, it’s recommended that broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables be eaten raw. However, for many people, such raw foods can be difficult to chew thoroughly. This is where the food list above comes in very handy. By adding them to cooked or broccoli, nutrient loss can be mitigated.

Yay for food-combining!

Summary

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables contain the cancer-fighting molecule, suforaphane. Suforaphane must be released from its parent molecule by the enzyme myrosinase to be effective. Cooking broccoli destroys myrosinase. By eating foods containing higher levels of myrosinase in combination with broccoli, valuable enzyme levels can be restored and suforaphane’s full cancer fighting abilities can be released.

RECIPE

Vegetable Slaw With Pine Nuts and Honey Mustard Dressing Over Fresh Greens

Lightly steam and finely chop into tiny strips:
1 cup broccoli (Can be raw)
1 cup cabbage (Can be raw)
6-8 brussel sprouts

Mix in:
2 fresh raw finely chopped green onions

Dressing
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
4 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon horseradish
1 tablespoon cold, fresh pressed flaxseed oil (optional)
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder to taste
Sea salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over a bed of iceberg lettuce, arugula, romaine lettuce and watercress.

Top with sprinkling of pine nuts and fine slices red onion.

Notes

Broccoli Powder
Because broccoli powder is usually highly processed under relatively high heat conditions, it’s enzyme activity can be sorely inhibited, even entirely eliminated. Therefore, eating fresh foods from the list above can help bring those enzyme levels back up.

~~~

Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables can aid in the fight against cancer, but they are not the end all. It is highly recommended that one seek an integrated approach for any methods of treatment.

~~~