Broccoli As a Superfood and Its Health Benefits
Broccoli isn’t only considered as one of the healthiest vegetables you can find in the market. But it’s also regarded as one of the best superfoods to include in your diet.
Just like other cruciferous vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower, it’s highly suggested to eat broccoli a few times per week to get the health benefits that you definitely need.
With so much more to know and to love about this superfood, this article gathered some of the surprising health benefits of broccoli.
So, whether you’re a health and fitness enthusiast or not, stay right on the next pages and get to know more about broccoli as a superfood and its positive impacts to your general well-being.
Why is it regarded as a superfood?
There might be a world of selections of superfoods in the market but the question is, how did broccoli make it to the list of the best superfoods?
Broccoli is enriched with antioxidants that help combat cancer, fibre that’s good for your digestive health, and vitamin C to support iron digestion.
This superfood comes in three classifications:
Calabrese broccoli – This type of broccoli is the most well-known classification amongst the three. Calabrese broccoli is mostly referred to as “broccoli” and is named after Calabria, a region in Italy.
Purple cauliflower – Regardless of its name, purple cauliflower is indeed one of the three classifications of broccoli.
It’s a cool-season biennial cruciferous vegetable. Its purple colour is a result of the presence of antioxidant anthocyanin.
Sprouting broccoli – This type of broccoli has more number of heads compared to the others and consists of many thin stems.
And there you have a brief introduction as to why broccoli is listed as one of the best superfoods. Now, let’s move on to its health benefits.
● Broccoli helps fight arthritis
The sulforaphane, a sulfur-rich compound found in broccoli is what makes it beneficial and ideal to fight arthritis.
Sulforaphane prevents the production of core destructive enzymes which harms the cartilages in the bones.
Including broccoli as part of your healthy diet, you can dilute the risks of osteoarthritis. Aside from that, the sulforaphane content in broccoli also helps in blocking other illnesses throughout the body.
● Gives protection against the risks of cancer
Cruciferous vegetables, including broccoli, have a variety of antioxidants.
These antioxidants aid in stopping the type of cell damage that may lead to certain types of cancer such as bladder, breast, colorectal, gastric/stomach, prostate, and renal/kidney cancer.
One of these antioxidants is a sulfur-rich compound called sulforaphane which gives the cruciferous vegetables their bitter taste.
● Skyrockets the immune system
It’s never easy to boost the human immune system in just a snap.
For the immune system to function well, you need to get a lot of nutrients and commit to a healthy living.
Good thing that broccoli contains a content that understandably helps in keeping the immune system at its top shape.
If you don’t mind knowing, broccoli is rich in vitamin C which is one of the key ingredients to boost the immune function.
Several research studies also show that vitamin C is an effective content to prevent and treat various illnesses.
The Bottom Line:
Broccoli is indeed one of the nutrient-dense vegetables you should always have in your fridge.
With the shown health benefits above, it only proves how broccoli deserves a spot on your healthy diet.
Whether you’re a health and fitness buff, why not try including broccoli as part of your healthy living? And in that case, you’ll see how much it affects your overall health in a positive way.
If you have more ideas in mind concerning the topic, just know that we’re always open to hear your thoughts.
AUTHOR BIO:
Kath Ramirez embraced the dream of being a writer since she was in 4th grade. She took it seriously and she now writes for Healthy Being – Online Health Food Store, Australia’s favourite natural and organic online health food store. Aside from writing, Kath also keeps herself busy spending time with her family, cherishing the role of a mom to her fur babies, reading random books, and diving into the world of photography. She’s not even a pro to whatever she’s engaged into right now, but one thing she knows, she’s happy and that’s more than enough.