Healthy Broccoli

My Healthy Broccoli:

One of my top choices when it comes to vegetables, Broccoli is an important food in body building or in weight loss/management. You'd be surprised as to what nutrients half a cup of steamed broccoli can offer more than your healthy fruits.

Nutritional Benefits:

Broccoli is the superhero of the vegetable kingdom with its rich vitamin A content--notice broccoli's dark green color as an indicator of its hearty carotene content. Though a bit on the bitter side, broccoli leaves are completely edible and also contain generous amounts of vitamin A.

With one half-cup of cooked broccoli providing 1083 IU of vitamin A and raw offering 678 IU, this veggie should make a frequent appearance at your dinner table. Folic acid is also abundant with one-half cup cooked registering 39 mcg and raw 31.2 mcg.
Broccoli offers 71.8 mg of calcium for a whole cup of cooked, as much calcium as 4 oz. of milk. That cup of raw contains 42.2 mg.

A cup of broccoli gives you 10% of your daily iron requirement, and the vitamin C content helps the body to absorb the iron.

One cup of cooked broccoli has as much vitamin C as an orange, and one third of a pound has more vitamin C than two and one-half pounds of oranges. A serving of one-half cup cooked broccoli offers 58.2 mg while the raw stores 41 mg. A cup of broccoli actually fulfills your daily vitamin C requirement

If you're a calorie counter, count broccoli in with only 22 calories for one-half cup chopped and boiled and 12 calories for one-half cup raw chopped.

Though this exceptional vegetable is not a powerhouse of protein, it does contain 2 grams for one-half cup boiled, and 1 gram for the same quantity of raw. These same figures apply to fiber as well with 2 grams, for the boiled and 1 gram for the raw broccoli.

Across the nutrition scale, broccoli contains all the nutrients mentioned above in addition to vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, iron, magnesium, potassium, and zinc.
It is important to note that though the figures listed for raw broccoli seem lower, it is not because raw broccoli is inferior to cooked. Because raw broccoli contains more bulk or volume than the cooked, one must eat more to equal the figures for cooked. Cooking breaks down the volume of broccoli, making it easier to consume larger quantities.

Frozen broccoli contains about 35% more beta carotene than the fresh because the frozen packages consist mainly of the florets. Most of the beta carotene is stored in the florets. But don't jump too quickly. There's plenty of nutrition in those stems, such as extra calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin C.

The darker colors of the florets, such as blue green, or purplish green contain more beta carotene and vitamin C than those with lighter greens.

Tips for Preparing Broccoli:

Both cooked and raw broccoli make excellent additions to your meal plan. Some of the health-supporting compounds in broccoli can be increased by slicing or chewing, since both slicing and chewing can help activate enzymes in the broccoli. The heating (for example, steaming) of unsliced broccoli is also fine, since bacteria in the intestine also have enzymes that can cause production of health-supportive compounds. In fact, intake of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli may be able to shift the balance of enzymes in our gut such that we have increased numbers of gut bacteria with myrosinase enzymes! When cooking broccoli, however, the stems and florets should be prepared differently. Since the fibrous stems take longer to cook, they can be prepared separately for a few minutes before adding the florets. For quicker cooking, make lengthwise slits in the stems. While people do not generally eat the leaves, they are perfectly edible and contain concentrated amounts of nutrients.

The World's Healthiest Foods has long recommended quickly steaming or healthy sautéing as the best ways to cook vegetables to retain their nutrients. Several recent studies have confirmed this advice. The way you cook can dramatically impact the amount of nutrients your vegetables deliver.

A study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture investigated the effects of various methods of cooking broccoli. Of all the methods of preparation, steaming caused the least loss of nutrients.

Microwaving broccoli resulted in a loss of 97%, 74% and 87% of its three major antioxidant compounds-flavonoids, sinapics and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives. In comparison, steaming broccoli resulted in a loss of only 11%, 0% and 8%, respectively, of the same antioxidants.So it would be safe to assume that microwaving broccoli is not highly recommended if you're after it's nutrients.


Health Benefits:

- Protection against Cancer

- Cruciferous Vegetables Cut Risk of Bladder Cancer

- Kaempferol-rich Broccoli Protective against Ovarian Cancer

- Cruciferous Vegetables Help Lower Risk of Certain Aggressive Prostate Cancers

- Broccoli Teams Up with Tomatoes to More Effectively Fight Prostate Cancer

- Optimize Your Cells' Detoxification / Cleansing Ability

- Support Stomach Health

- Help for Sun-Damaged Skin

- A Cardio-Protective Vegetable

- Cataract Prevention

- Stronger Bones with Broccoli

- An Immune System Booster

- A Birth Defect Fighter (For pregnant women)