Eat Your Greens

Cruciferous vegetables are packed with phytochemicals that have health giving power.  In last week’s Forward Thinking we discussed how cruciferous vegetables prime our immune system and thereby protecting our body from pathogens and disease.

This week we focus on cruciferous vegetables’ ability to up-regulate our body’s transcription of Phase 2 Enzymes.  In layman’s terms, these wonderful vegetables stimulate our genes to produce specific enzymes (called P2Ps) that support the detoxification of our blood by the liver.

James et al. (2012), in “Novel Concepts of Broccoli Sulforaphanes and Disease,” update us on evidence supporting Phase II enzyme induction by sulforaphanes.  Their conclusion was that the overall weight of evidence currently available supports a Phase 2 antioxidant enzyme-related function for broccoli and provides a strong argument for increasing the intake of broccoli.

Reference: James et al., (2012). Novel concepts of broccoli sulforaphanes and disease:  Induction of Phase 2 antioxidant and detoxification enzymes by enhanced-glucoraphanin broccoli. Nutrition Reviews, 70(11), 654-665.

Take a look at our Cruciferous Sprouts as the Product of the Month.

Clinical Notes:

This is why we choose cruciferous sprouts as our source material for our cruciferous vegetable supplement because sprouts yield a many fold increase in the precursor molecule for sulforaphane—the glucosinolates.  Pilot studies on sprouts were able to show a 2.6 fold increase of Phase 2 enzymes by human liver cells by taking 2 capsules a day.  Each capsule is filled with broccoli sprouts, daikon radish sprouts, red radish sprouts, water cress sprouts, kale sprouts, mustard spouts and cabbage sprouts.

See here the Cruciferous Sprout Complex