The Raw Truth About Broccoli
| Published April 28, 2014 |

By R. Alan Clanton, Thursday Review editor

Here’s a fun fact I bet you did not know: broccoli is actually a member of the cabbage family. Go figure. And all this time I had broccoli pegged as a vibrant green cousin of cauliflower, which is also—shockingly—a member of the apparently large cabbage family.

But here’s something that you probably did know. Broccoli is good for you, really good for you. It is one of those foods that just looks the part—raw, steamed, sautéed, or just chopped up and mixed in a salad or a soup. Something that green, with a firm stalk and a small forest-green floret, just has to be packed with exactly the stuff that your body needs.

So what exactly makes broccoli so healthy?

Broccoli’s healthy attributes include not only its vitamin content, but also its anti-inflammatory nutrients, its antioxidant value, and its detox-support nutrients. Antioxidants help to reduce the normal cellular breakdown known as oxidation, and the anti-inflammatory ingredients promote muscle and tissue repair, and may be instrumental in reducing some of the effects of arthritis and allergies. Broccoli’s detoxification benefits are so profound that broccoli is sometimes considered a miracle food—especially for its apparent cancer-inhibiting qualities (it shares this distinction with several others, including squash and cauliflower).

Then there is Vitamin C. One serving of broccoli, steamed or raw, contains more Vitamin C than a medium-sized orange and almost the same amount as one large grapefruit. And Vitamin C, as we have discussed in some of our previous food articles, is a win-win scenario for your health—a great source of the most effective thing you can eat if you want to ward off common problems like colds and flus. Vitamin C is absorbed quickly and efficiently into the body, and it is impossible to get too much of it—anything over what your body needs is simply rejected and passed along in your fluids. (See Maggie Nichol’s review of the health benefits of the kiwifruit).

Broccoli is also loaded with Vitamins A and K, another thing your body needs in large supplies in a given day because—among other benefits—these vitamins help to regulate the efficient absorption of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is perhaps one of the most useful nutrients for the body for its participation in promoting bone health and making efficient use of calcium. One good thing leads to another.

Broccoli’s healthy attributes also include its anti-inflammatory nutrients, its antioxidant value, and its detox-support nutrients. Antioxidants help to reduce the normal cellular breakdown known as oxidation, and the anti-inflammatory ingredients promote muscle and tissue repair, and may be instrumental in reducing some of the effects of arthritis and allergies. Broccoli’s detoxification benefits are so profound that broccoli is sometimes considered a miracle food—especially for its apparent cancer-inhibiting qualities (it shares this distinction with several others, including squash and cauliflower).

Broccoli is also famously high in fiber content, and foods high in fiber are excellent dietary choices if you are looking for ways to lower your risk of many internal cancers, including stomach and colon cancer. In that respect, broccoli is a win-win, especially in any family line which includes a predisposition for internal cancers.

Broccoli is also believed by many diet and health specialists to be beneficial in terms of boosting the body’s immune system.

Even better, a major British medical study found that broccoli contains a compound (known as sulfophane) linked directly to the reduction of inflammation typical in people who suffer with osteoarthritis.

For those who live on a schedule which seems to revolve around fast food or the microwave, do not dismiss broccoli as high-maintenance in the kitchen. Indeed, broccoli is also a convenience food. Like carrots, it can be eaten raw (though some would argue in its raw state, broccoli is best served with a touch of salad dressing—ranch, bleu cheese, melted cheddar, you name it). But for those who find raw it to be either harsh or bitter, the good news is that broccoli is easy to cook. Depending on your preference for texture and firmness, it can be sliced along the stalks, cut lengthwise into narrow stems and florets, and steamed in minutes. That means that you cannot use lack of time as your excuse for not giving broccoli a try in your daily diet.

Broccoli also works and plays well alongside meats and other veggies.

Broccoli can also be used to supplement a boring green salad. My particular trick is to cut it into tiny cubes—stems and florets—and use it as a topping or garnish to enhance any basic green salad. Mixed in among shredded carrots and a bit of grated cheese, broccoli adds remarkable color and texture to green leaf lettuce, iceberg lettuce, or Bibb lettuce.

For those who will prefer to steam broccoli, which is certainly the most popular method of cooking it, be cautious of overcooking: according to several major U.S. medical studies, including at the University of Illinois (those results were published in the medical journal Nutrition and Cancer), cooking broccoli for too long can undermine its potential for reducing the risk of cancer.


Related Thursday Review articles:

Tasty Ways to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer; R. Alan Clanton; Thursday Review; September 17, 2013.

The Skinny on the Kiwi; Maggie Nichols; Thursday Review; April 21, 2014.