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Sulforaphane! Great word. Say it and it’ll surely make you smarter. Consume it in the shape of broccoli sprouts and it’ll surely make you SERIOUSLY healthier. And the good news?! They’re not revolting! Thank god – I’m still trying to gain an appreciation for kale and it’s been yeeeeears. They kind of taste like nothing. Crunchy, but otherwise not much. My home grown ones are a bit peppery, but that could mean the kids have taken to the sprouting tray with the pepper grinder. Great as the main ingredient for a salad.

Eat them. Daily. I aim for a minimum of a compacted cup every single day. 60g daily seems like it’d be ideal based on the research, but we’ve settled on a BIG cup each day. Fresh. The stats around this crazy impressive super food would blow your mind.

I sprout my own (I buy the seeds from livingapartment.com.au) or fresh from Leaf in Elwood. They’re about $4 a punnet and you’d need a punnet per person every 3-4 days. If you’re interested in learning to sprout your own, comment below and I’ll pop up a “how-to” post soon.

Anyway, here comes the nerdy stuff. Read on if you don’t want to just take my word for it and get them into your life.

Broccoli sprouts are the best known source of Sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is the strongest known naturally occurring inducer of the Nrf2 genetic pathway which activates genes involved in glutathione productions (SUPER cool if you’ve got some MTHFR stuff going on in your gene pool like yours truly). Glutathine is one of the major antioxidants in the brain and has been shown to play a role in brain aging, recovery from traumatic injury and other neurological disorders. But this is soooo far from all.

How about this for a list;

• Sulforaphane lowers DNA damage by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. Not a little bit. A LOT. And as I’m sure you know, these processes are central to cancer, aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
• Broccoli sprouts support healthy bowel function and digestive health. These guys are high in fibre as well as anti-oxidants and can play a key role in keeping your gut function absolutely dynamo and your poops super floating and all the other good things poop can be. You’ll notice – Promise!
• These wonder sprouts are also high in vitamin C, so therefore top notch when it comes to immune system super-charging.
• Sulforaphane kick starts all the good stuff the Nrf2 enzyme has to offer, Eg, hunting down and destroying carcinogenic free radicals. Super radical, if you ask me. Bye-bye baddies!
• Detox master! Sulforaphane is an indirect anti-oxidant which boosts the anto-oxidant capacity of cells by kick-starting phase 2 detoxification (yes please!!) and increasing glutathione levels.

Also handy to know;

• Broccoli sprouts contain more than 100x more sulforaphane’s precursor, glucoraphanin, than mature broccoli.
• Sprinkle your sprouts (or any cruciferous veggies – to varying outcomes) with freshly ground mustard seeds to increase the available sulforaphane by up to 4x!! Crazy!!! So obviously that’s a must. We keep mustard seeds in our mortar and pestle 24/7 these days.

That’s all on this topic folks, but do let me know if you’re interested in more posts like this in future. I would happily go over my list of no-to-be-missed foods such as these kick arse sprouts of hard-to-believe it’s true, proportions.

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