The Little-Known Science Behind Cooking Broccoli

Michael Greger
Updated:

When I used to teach medical students at Tufts, I gave a lecture about this amazing new therapeutic called “iloccorB.” I‘d talk about all the new science, all the things it could do, its excellent safety profile. Just as they were all scrambling to buy stock in the company and prescribe it to all their patients, I’d do the big reveal. Apologizing for my dyslexia, I would admit that I'd got it backwards. All this time I had been talking about broccoli.

The main active ingredient in broccoli is thought to be sulforaphane, which may protect our brains, protect our eyesight, protect our bodies against free radicals, induce our detoxification enzymes, and help prevent and treat cancer. For example, in my video Broccoli Versus Breast Cancer Stem Cells I talked about sulforaphane targeting breast cancer stem cells.

We get dramatic suppression of cancer cell growth from raw broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts, but hardly anything from boiled, microwaved or steamed.
Michael Greger
Michael Greger
Author
Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. He has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, testified before Congress, appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and “The Colbert Report,” and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous “meat defamation” trial. This article was originally published on NutritionFacts.org
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