Since this is Part 4 of the “Broccoli rocks!” series, you probably have gotten the message that I love broccoli!  It is one of the most impressive vegetables.  It is so funny because my 7 year old grandson (who spends many days and nights at our home) loves, loves, loves eating my broccoli.   And, he heaps the broccoli on his plate, not just a few bites. He has been that way since he was 2.  He’ll even say that broccoli is better than ice cream!  We have pancakes (high fiber ones) and scrambled eggs (organic, of course) and broccoli as our Sunday morning breakfast whenever he is here, and that’s after broccoli with Saturday night’s dinner!   He’s a boy after my own heart …

If you’ve been following along with the first 3 parts of this series, you know the name of broccoli’s superstar ingredient (see Part 1). You know something about Phase 2 Detoxification enzymes (see Part 2). You know the value of broccoli for keeping all the cells in your body healthy (see Part 3).

Today, we’ll talk about one simple, and super important, example of how broccoli makes life better.  Yep, it’s one of those things we all agree about.  We don’t like air pollution and we know it can’t be good for us.  In reality, air pollution is one big source of the serious toxicant exposure that bombards us in this modern day world. The scope of toxic materials moves from many different toxic gases to all sorts of particulate matter (soot) that we breathe in.

Air pollution is a growing global issue and is at critical levels in the large cities in China.  Do you remember the Beijing Olympics?  From our perspective, the air looked awful.  And that was after the Chinese government spent 17 Billion $$ to clean it up for the Olympics!  Good heavens!

OK, back to broccoli.  In a study published in June of this year, 291 people living in a rural area of China with very high levels of air pollution were given a daily “test” drink for 12 weeks.  Half the people were given a drink made from pineapple juice, lime juice, and sterilized water.  The other half received the same drink with broccoli powder added to it. The theory was that the broccoli powder would provide sulforaphane which improves detoxification capacity. The results showed that the people receiving the broccoli drink excreted large amounts of toxic materials and the others did not.  As you know, removing  toxicants is hugely helpful in maintaining health.

Depending on where you live, your exposure may be higher or it may be lower, but it is there!  We know that breathing in those toxicants is inevitable, and unhealthy.  Once again, the vegetable hero, broccoli, rises to the top of scientific validation about keeping us healthy.  Broccoli rocks!!  What else can I say? Oh I know …….  Eat your broccoli!!

Resources:

http://www.epa.gov/region7/air/quality/health.htm

http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/outdoor/protecting-your-health/impacts-on-your-health/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24913818

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24287881