Dr. Geetha Bhavsar

The top 5 reasons to eat broccoli are:

1) A high intake of broccoli has been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer and may also help prevent heart disease.

2) Averaging just four weekly servings of veggies like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower slashed the risk of dying from any disease by 26% among 6,100 people studied for 28 years.

3) Broccoli contains a flavonoid called kaempferol which has anti-inflammatory properties. This makes broccoli potentially useful in assisting with chronic inflammatory ailments, such as arthritis or gout.

4) This dark green veg also helps your body absorb vitamin D. This is due to broccoli’s high levels of of vitamins A and K, which both aid in the healthy absorption of vitamin D.

5) Broccoli may have a positive impact on our body's ability to naturally detox. This is possibly due to three phytonutrients found in unique combination in broccoli - glucoraphanin, gluconasturtiian, and glucobrassicin. This nutritional trio is able to support all steps in body's detox process, including neutralization and elimination of unwanted contaminants.

How to eat broccoli?

Broccoli is usually boiled or steamed but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a raw vegetable in hors d'œuvre trays.

As the benefits of broccoli are thought to greatly reduce if boiled, light steaming is a far healthier way of cooking it. Scientists have also discovered that steaming broccoli lightly releases the maximum amount of sulforaphane.