Broccoli for your health and well-being

Broccoli is an edible green plant that belongs to the cabbage family, and its large flowering head and stalk are eaten as a vegetable. Broccoli sprouts are particularly rich in sulforaphanes, which are powerful stimulators for our immune system. Notably, raw vegetables have the highest levels of sulforaphanes, and raw broccoli contains about ten times more than cooked broccoli. Studies have revealed that sulforaphane may play a role in enhancing the detoxification of airborne toxins, such as cigarette smoke. Broccoli is also thought to diminish the risk of certain cancers, particularly prostate cancer.

In 2016, the effects of broccoli sprout consumption on the immune system were studied by the University Children’s Hospital Basel, Switzerland, along with Stanford University and North Carolina University.1 In a double-blind controlled study, the researchers investigated whether broccoli sprouts could help boost the body’s immune response after vaccination.

Overall, 20 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the clinical trial, all aged in their late twenties. These volunteers were randomly assigned to two different groups, one of which received two cups of broccoli sprouts blended into a milkshake, while the other group was given a placebo drink of similar color and taste. These shakes had to be consumed each day on four consecutive days. On the second day of consumption, the volunteers were administered a nasal spray flu vaccine.

Data analysis revealed that the volunteers that were administered the broccoli sprout shake exhibited twenty-two times more natural killer (NK) cells in their blood. In addition, these NKs displayed increased killer ability. Moreover, the broccoli sprout drinkers were shown to have less flu viruses remaining in their nasal mucous membrane, meaning that the body’s own defenses had more efficiently removed the viruses.

1Muller L, Meyer M, Bauer RN, Zhou H, Zhang H, Jones S, Robinette C, Noah TL, Jaspers I. Effect of Broccoli Sprouts and Live Attenuated Influenza Virus on Peripheral Blood Natural Killer Cells: A Randomized, Double-Blind Study. PLoS One. 2016 ;11:1 :e0147742.