Broccoli Sprouts
I generally believe that it’s best to think of whole foods rather than individual nutrients as conferring health benefits. Nutrition science seems to come up with the nutrient-of-the-moment that we should all be eating and the next week it’s a new one.
That said, it’s pretty clear from studies that various foods have high concentrations of nutrients that seem to be beneficial. For instance, the cruciferous vegetables all seem to be amazing cancer fighting foods; one of the reasons is that they contain Sulforaphane Glucosinolate, or SGS, which may be a phytochemical that promotes antixodant activity. Who really knows.
But, what the heck. Why not eat lots of broccoli and cabbage and brussel sprouts? They are veggies and high in nutrients and low in calories, and they taste good. All good reasons to eat lots of them.
Two additional ways to consume more SGS in particular that I’ve found are to eat broccoli sprouts - apparently with the highest concentration of SGS you can find - and drink Brassica tea, a tea specially formulated with the SGS compound.
I recently bought an Easy Sprouter and so I thought I’d give the broccoli sprouts a try this week. It worked great. The broccoli seeds took longer to sprout than many of the other seeds I’ve sprouted, but once they did, they grew quickly and now I’ve got them stashed in the fridge to eat on salads and crackers, like these raw onion crackers from the Cafe Gratitude cookbook that I love.
I’m always amazed to see seeds sprouting. It never ceases to make me smile when I see the tiny seed tails popping out. Seeds are truly amazing things: they are tiny packages of life just waiting to grow into broccoli or a huge tree. That is just so cool.
Thank you broccoli sprouts for making me smile and keeping me healthy.
