A Good Reason to Love Broccoli Sprouts

Not everyone loves broccoli, especially kids—it brings to mind a dining table scene with a kid wailing because there’s broccoli on the plate that needs to be consumed or else there will be no dessert after. The repulsion for this vegetable is sometimes carried on to adulthood. So if you don’t have any liking for broccoli, do you think you will like broccoli sprouts?

If you’re wondering what these are, these are basically broccoli seedlings that look like bean sprouts. Knowing that, would you still want to eat them? If not, you might have a change of heart soon.

Recent studies have shown that these little short, string-looking veggies have potential life saving effects. It turns out that broccoli sprouts have high concentrations of Glucoraphanin, which when consumed activates a compound called Sulforaphane, which is an enzyme that has anti-cancer and anti-microbial properties, and wages war against pollutants. In addition, consuming Glucoraphnin also produces Myrosinase, which is an antibiotic.

The research found that drinking a glass of 2-3 day-old broccoli sprouts filtered out very high and harmful chemicals called Benzene and Acrolein. Benzene is associated with air pollution, while both Benzene and Acrolein is found in cigarette smoke, and are classified as human carcinogens.

Given that air pollution is one of the biggest pollutants of the world, and an ultimate solution to this grave danger has yet to be discovered, people need to turn to any possible means to be able to combat this. Discovering the wonderful benefit of broccoli sprouts and its effects on filtering air pollution chemicals from the body surely is very helpful.

There is a question of how much broccoli sprouts should be consumed or for how long, however. There is no specific amount determined as of the time being, but knowing how beneficial it is you know that any amount will be helpful. You don’t necessarily need to drink broccoli sprouts; you can add them to any food dish of your choosing like salad, so long as you consume it.

This also doesn’t mean you should forget about mature broccoli. Cooked broccoli doesn’t contain as much Glucoraphanin, but it still is very good for the body. If anything, you will still get a good dose of Vitamin C and more.

In this day and age, where pollution is a big issue, there is truly no harm in trying to find ways to overcome its negative effects. So, if you don’t have any fondness for broccoli, let alone broccoli sprouts, for your health you should give it a try—only good will come of it.