You have heard us talk about the cabbage family of vegetables, called the cruciferous vegetables, being super healthy many times. This includes broccoli, kale, cabbage, collards, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.
They are a concentrated source of super beneficial nutrients and we strongly encourage you (and your child) to eat 1 serving of these every day (remember: a serving size is about a handful of the person who eats it).
Today, we want to highlight one specific nutrient in them which seems to have superpowers. Superpowers that we specifically harness through our cooking methods to benefit your child(ren).
This compound is called sulforaphane and is:
- Anti-cancerous (effective in treating breast and prostate cancer)
- Helps protect the brain (has been shown to be effective in treating kids with Autism!)
- Protects eyesight
- Reduces nasal allergy inflammation
- And much more, we can’t list it all!
Sulforaphane is made by an enzyme in broccoli in response to us chewing it (damaging the plant). And it needs about 40min to develop which it does when it sits in your upper stomach waiting for digestion. If you were to cook broccoli right away (without chewing/damaging the plant), you would kill the enzyme that makes sulforaphane through heat and therefore you would not have any left in your stew.
When we are in the kitchen, we are on a mission to harness as many nutrients as we can, and because of this, our recipe framework follows this exact strategy. In all dishes that call for cauliflower or other cruciferous veggies, we chop and rest and give ample time for Sulforaphane to develop so that your child can reap all the benefits.
If you have any questions about our science, please message us. We will gladly share our knowledge source with the main one being: NutritionFacts.Org
With much love,
Team Sprout
