Broccoli
Mother Nature is truly amazing. It provides us lots of wonderful resources to help us survive on this planet. Well, it certainly provides us our basic needs to live – water, air and land. Plants, animals and most especially humans are basically depending on what our mother nature can bring. All of God’s creations have unique attributes and a purpose. It is our duty to know and discover what these attributes are and use them in their real purpose.
In relation to plants, almost everything we eat comes directly or indirectly from them. But, aside from that, one of the plants wonderful purposes is to provide us essential nutrients that our body needs. One of these wonderful plants is the “broccoli”. This vegetable belongs to family of vegetables called cruciferous vegetables and its close relatives include brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage. Broccoli has a wide variety of nutritional and medicinal benefits which include its ability to prevent many types of cancer, lower cholesterol and blood sugar, detoxify the body, improve our digestive system, and maximize vitamin and mineral uptake. It also boosts the immune system, protects the skin, prevents birth defects and prevents allergic reactions.
The most commonly eaten broccoli parts are the flowering heads, (shaped like tree) coming off a thick, central, edible stalk. Broccoli contains sulforaphane, a sulfur-containing compound present in cruciferous vegetables. Researchers are studying the anti-cancer properties of sulforaphane and have come to some interesting conclusions. Also, it offers as much vitamin C as an orange, and is a good source of beta-carotene. Broccoli contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc too. It also provides fiber and is low in calories. Isn’t it amazing? Broccoli is indeed an all-star food with many nutrients contents that provide numerous health benefits to our body. Here are the broader details of some of the blissful benefits of Broccoli:
The “B” Wonders of Broccoli
Broccoli can treat Cancer
Broccoli may prove to be a natural wonder drug for various types of cancer, including breast cancer, cancer of the uterus, prostate cancer, and cancers of various internal organs like the lungs, colon, liver, kidneys, and the intestines. In line with this, it’s particularly helpful for breast and uterine cancer, since it removes extra estrogen from the body. This is due to the presence of strong anti-carcinogenic compounds like glucoraphanin, diindolylmethane, beta-carotene, selenium and other nutrients like vitamin C, A, and E, zinc, potassium and certain amino acids, which are also good anti-cancer agents.
Body Detoxifier
The presence of vitamin-C, sulfur, and certain amino acids make broccoli a very good detoxifier. It helps to remove free radicals and toxins like uric acid from the body, thereby purifying the blood and keeping away problems related to toxins such as boils, itches, rashes, gout, arthritis, rheumatism, renal calculi, skin diseases like eczema, and hardening of the skin.
Beautifying skin
The credit for keeping your skin glowing and young goes to expert antioxidants like beta-carotene and vitamin-C, as well as other helpers like vitamin B complex, vitamin E (the one that gives shine to your skin and hair while reviving skin tissues), vitamin A & K, omega 3 fatty acids, amino acids, and foliate present in broccoli. They all help to take very good care of your skin and leave it glowing, healthy, and radiant.
Bowel Movements become Healthy and treat Stomach Disorders
Broccoli is very rich in fiber or roughage, the primary dietary ingredient that can cure almost all stomach disorders by curing constipation since constipation is the root of almost all the stomach disorders. The fiber adds to the bulkiness of the food, retains water and forms healthy bowel movements. The magnesium and vitamins present in it also cure acidity, facilitate proper digestion and absorption of nutrients from the food and soothe the stomach by reducing inflammation.
Blood Pressure regulator / Boost blood flow and oxygenation
Aside from its antioxidants, broccoli has very high fiber content, along with significant levels of beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, and other vitamins that help reduce bad cholesterol and keep the heart functioning properly by regulating blood-pressure. When you steam it, studies have shown that the fiber components combine better with bile, making it much easier and efficient to excrete. Reducing bile has a strong impact on cholesterol levels, thereby helping your heart health. Furthermore, the potassium found in broccoli is a vasodilator that can boost blood flow and oxygenation of essential organs.
Boost Immune System
The substances responsible for the green and purple color of broccoli are vitamin C, beta-carotene, and other vitamins and minerals, particularly selenium, copper, zinc, and phosphorus. These compounds present in it are actually great immune system boosters that can protect you from many infections.
Birth Defect can be prevented
Since it is full of nutrients essential for pregnant women, such as proteins, calcium, vitamins, antioxidants, detoxifiers, iron, phosphorus and others, it is an ideal component of any diet for them. Being rich in fiber, this will also eliminate constipation, which is very common during pregnancy. Furthermore, the foliate content in broccoli ensures that there are no birth defects, such as neural tube defects, which are a major problem for pregnant mothers who have a folic acid deficiency in their diet.
Bone Health Improvement
Being very rich in calcium and other nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, and phosphorus, eating broccoli can be very beneficial, particularly for children, old people, pregnant women or lactating mothers. That’s because these are the people most prone to osteoporosis, weakening of bones and teeth, and calcium deficiency.
Now that you know almost all the nutrient contents of Broccoli, why not start to include this on you daily diet and experience the “B wonders” for yourself.
To know more about the wonders of Broccoli please visit our pages below.
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