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As Good as It Gets
For: Wellness Made Easy, February 2002

Like pizza, broccoli is a gift of the Italians: the word is Italian ("brocco" means "branch"), and broccoli has been grown in Italy since Roman times. In the 1920s Italian farmers who had settled in California began growing broccoli, and today California grows 90% of American broccoli, though it's also grown in almost every other state. Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable, part of the Brassica family, along with cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and others. But broccoli is the most nutritious of the family. Simple to prepare, broccoli (when refrigerated and properly handled) is sturdy, retaining its shape, nutrients, and freshness even when shipped long distances.

We've always praised it as a nutritional powerhouse. Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamin C (one cup, chopped, has more C than an orange), fiber, and folic acid (an important B vitamin), plus beta carotene, potassium, and vitamin K—and only 43 calories per cup.

If that were not enough, broccoli contains important phytochemicals, the most powerful of which is sulforaphane, which helps reduce the risk of cancer. Broccoli actually contains slightly different substances that break down into sulforaphane when broccoli is cut, chopped, and/or chewed. Bacteria in your intestines can also act on broccoli to produce sulforaphane. Sulforaphane is such an interesting cancer fighter that scientists are looking into it as a potential treatment for cancer.
None of this means that broccoli is the only vegetable that helps prevent cancer, or that it's the only cruciferous vegetable containing sulforaphane—but it does contain the most.

Broccoli branches out

If you already eat broccoli but are ready for a change, here are several variations. All have similar nutritional advantages, are easy to prepare, and have a bright, appealing color. (You may have to go to a specialty store for some of these.)

• Broccolini is a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale. It comes in a bunch of long slender stalks with small buds, and is reminiscent of asparagus in flavor. It can be quickly steamed or stir-fried and served cold in salads.

• Broccoli rabe, also called rapini, comes in a bunch with thin stems, many leaves, small flowers. It has a bitter but inter-esting flavor, like some greens; can be steamed, stir-fried, and used in salads, soups, and stews.

• Broccoflower, a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, comes in a solid head, like cauliflower, but is green not white. It can be steamed and is good raw as a dipping vegetable.

• Broccoli sprouts are loaded with substances that convert into sulforaphane—up to 50 times as much as mature broccoli. But, of course, a serving is much smaller. Try them raw on sandwiches and in salads for added crunch and flavor.

Some broccoli facts

• Some vitamins and beneficial plant chemicals leach out of broccoli into the cooking water. Thus it's best to steam it in the smallest amount of water possible, and to save the cooking water for use in a sauce or other recipe. Start cooking stalks first, then add florets, which cook quickly.

• Raw broccoli is slightly more nutritious than cooked. Overcooked broccoli—beyond the just-tender stage—loses nutrients and sensory appeal.

• Frozen broccoli may have slightly less of the cancer-preventing chemicals, but it's still very nutritious.

• The leaves and stems are very nutritious, but the florets are more so. Florets contain more of the cancer-fighting substances.

• You needn't peel broccoli stems unless they are tough.

• A few people have a genetic trait that makes broccoli and related vegetables taste particularly bitter to them. If you are not one of them, rejoice! If you are, read on.

• Though broccoli's flavor is impossible to disguise, it can be enhanced with the following: almost any herb; olive or walnut oil, butter, or margarine, in reasonable amounts; garlic; tomato sauce and/or a little sharp cheese; and flavored vinegars. Rice vinegar is particularly good on broccoli rabe, as is a vinaigrette dressing.

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, January 2000