Latest Trustworthy News from Dr. Mercola - delivered straight to your inbox!
memorial day sale memorial day sale

The Fountain of Youth May Actually Be Broccoli

  • October 29, 2016

A team of researchers has found that a compound that plays a key role in energy metabolism, and found in broccoli, has a youth-boosting effect when added to drinking water, New York Daily News reports.

The experiment was done on mice, but the anti-aging benefit could apply to humans, the Daily News said. This adds to previous studies that have shown numerous benefits of broccoli and broccoli sprouts, such as remarkable cancer-fighting properties. Broccoli also has been shown to reduce your risk of many common diseases, including arthritis, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

Possibly the first of its kind, another recent broccoli-related study that impressed the scientific community showed it has the potential to protect you against fatty liver disease, aka non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD.

With cancer, eating broccoli may help reduce lung and prostate cancers due to a powerful compound, sulforaphane, and phenolic compounds that may prevent several other cancer types. In fact, sprouted broccoli contains 30 to 50 times more protective chemicals than regular broccoli.

Research also shows that sulforaphane, a naturally occurring organic sulfur compound within the isothiocyanate group, has caused cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, or programmed cell death, in colon cancer cells and exterminated breast cancer stem cells.

If broccoli isn’t your favorite vegetable, there are other cruciferous veggies that can offer some of the same health benefits, such as mustard greens, rutabaga, Chinese cabbage, turnips and turnip greens, kale, collards, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kohlrabi.