Broccoli Sprouts

🥦 Let me introduce you to your new favorite power food! I’m guessing you already know how great broccoli and other cruciferous veggies are for your overall health, but what you might not know is that these unsuspecting little sprouts provide up to 50 times the cellular protection and 100 times the detoxification effect of fully matured broccoli!

SAY WHAAATT???

Yeah, you need these in your life ASAP. Still not convinced? Let’s discuss…

🥦 Broccoli sprouts are LOADED with a compound called sulforaphane, which is known to be one of the most powerful cancer preventing and cancer fighting compounds found in nature. In fact, broccoli sprouts contain 10-100x more of this compound than mature broccoli and other cruciferous veggies. It has been shown to reduce the overall number of cancer cells by encouraging programmed cell death, kill other cancer cells outright, and prevent existing cancer cells from generating new tumors. How exciting is that??

🥦 Various preliminary studies have showed that sulforaphane can potentially stop the growth of breast cancer stem cells, can halt the growth and spread of prostate cancer cells, can cause programmed cell death and DNA damage to colon cancer cells, and have also been shown to have positive effects on throat, lung, bladder and skin cancers. And, do you want to hear something really crazy?? Sulforaphane might even be able to alter negative genetic code that can induce or worsen some types of cancer. This is incredibly exciting news for someone like me, who has the BRCA1 mutation! If there is a food that can potentially disrupt this genetic propensity, I’ll take it!

🥦 The powerful compounds found in broccoli sprouts, make them anti-oxidant rich, which means they can help target and kill cancerous cells, while protecting healthy ones. This is great news for everyone, and an important preventative measure that can help to reduce the possibility of ever getting cancer in the first place. But, for someone who may already have cancer, this compound can not only help to seek out and destroy cancer cells, but can actually help to protect healthy cells from the damaging effects of chemotherapy as well!

🥦 During my chemotherapy, I ate as many anti-oxidant rich foods (mostly green leafy and cruciferous veggies) as possible, and I considered myself extremely lucky to have experienced very few side effects from the chemo. I attribute much of my relative ease with chemo (don’t get me wrong…it was no walk in the park!) to the types of foods I was consuming. Chemo is rough on the body (understatement of the century), and I believe that equipping myself with lots of anti-oxidant rich power foods helped my body to process the chemo more effectively and with fewer side effects.

🥦 Broccoli sprouts also support healthy liver function, can help us to eliminate environmental toxins from our bodies, protect against some viral and bacterial infections, and promote healthy gut flora. Heck, sulforaphane even reduces inflammation, promotes healthy skin, and helps with hair growth.

I told you…POWER FOOD. 🥦🥦🥦🥦🥦

🥦 Grab some at a health food market, or grow your own (they sell organic seeds and growing kits on Amazon, and they’re pretty easy to grow in your kitchen), and throw them on salads, in smoothies, or on some avocado toast. They’re a mega-heathy addition to any diet that you should DEFINITELY add to yours!

🥦 xoxo,
Malea

*Disclosure: some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase