Eat Yo Greens! [and not ONLY because your Mom said so.]

You’ve heard countless times, you need to eat your veggies...but do you really know why?

Currently, I'm obsessing over the natural occurring compound called sulforaphane. A naturally anti-inflammatory/aging/cancer compound that is in veggies we eat (or should be eating) everyday. There’s a ton to learn about sulforaphane and way more to discover, but I wanted to give a brief overview of why I am currently obsessing. If you take anything from this post, it’s eat more raw green! But if you’re curious, here is why:

[the basics: sulforaphane]

Sulforaphane (SF) is a natural compound found in cruciferous vegetables such as kale, broccoli, broccoli sprouts and brussel sprouts. SF promotes anti-inflammatory cytokines (See my exercise and inflammation post where I explain inflammation and cytokines) and silences pro-inflammatory cytokines.

[summary of sulforaphane benefits]

Reduces inflammation
Protects against carcinogens
Evidentiary support for anti-aging in animal models in the Nfr2 pathway (aging is a result of a build up of inflammation discussed in an earlier post--and promising for human longevity!)

[the science]

SF helps keep inflammation down by gene regulation, turning off cancer inducing genes and turning on detoxifying, anti-inflammatory genes. SF helps by using a blocking mechanism that interacts with phase 1 biotransformation enzymes, which play a huge roll in the development of cancer. SF also activates Nrf2 pathway, a pathway responsible for hundreds of genes, including those involved with anti-inflammatory responses. Nrf2 either inhibits inflammatory pathways and/or promotes anti-inflammatory pathways. In doing this, anti-inflammatory genes are then upregulated to promote the reduction of inflammation! We can do this by measuring different cytokines of inflammation, a common practice done in labs and clinics everywhere. So sulforaphane not only aids to deactivate inflammatory pathways, it then activates those pathways that detoxify and repair the body!

[bioavailability of sulforaphane]

SF is abundant in raw cruciferous veggies. I stress raw because once you cook it, one of the precursors to make SF becomes denatured in the heating process. Meaning, all this time you’ve been overcooking your broccoli or kale, you haven’t been getting it’s full benefits. Can’t quite keep the raw stuff down? It's okay to steam them for a bit, you might actually get the most benefits this way [but only heat to about 70C for a short time]. One of the veggies highest concentrations of sulforaphane are broccoli sprouts [which you can throw on salads or in a smoothie!].

[the scientific summary]

The reason anti-inflammatories are so great is because inflammation contributes to a majority of common and serious medical conditions. Cancer, Alzheimer's, stress/anxiety and depression disorders are just a few conditions attributed to inflammation. SF helps to reverse some of these diseases by turning the disease related genes off and up-regulating the healthy genes, which promote the benefits listed above, and you can do this by eating cruciferous vegetables rich in SF.

[the non-scientific summary]

Eat green veggies because they reduce inflammation, detoxify your body and improve your overall quality of life :D

***Please consult a medical professional about any medical concerns you may have and as always, you can check out the articles I used here, and test my knowledge if you have any questions:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2579766/

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140963

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/chemical_derived_from_broccoli_sprouts_shows_promise_in_treating_autism

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4390425/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/medgen/820648

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4YVJ4aRfg