Broccoli is found to be one of the healthiest vegetables that you can add to your diet. It comes from the cauliflower family and offers many health benefits as compared to other vegetables. People who are health conscious include broccoli in their diet as it helps in improving their body’s immunity. It also makes the food tasty as you can add it to your soups, pizza, curries, pasta, etc. If you are a non-vegetarian and thinking about how you can make your food tasty by including broccoli in it, then you can try the instant pot beef and broccoli recipe. You can click here to get the full recipe via Corrie Cooks.
Broccoli is beneficial for improving digestion and lowering cholesterol levels. It also offers you a variety of nutrients by maximizing your vitamin and mineral uptake. If you have any health diseases like immunity problems, allergies, blood pressure, or inflammation, start adding broccoli to your diet to deal with all these diseases.
Here we have come up with 7 reasons that will encourage you to add broccoli in your diet.
Powerful Antioxidant
Broccoli consists of antioxidants that play an essential role in keeping our body healthy. It is highly concentrated with vitamin C, which is a powerful nutrient for improving immunity. The antioxidants protect the cells from getting damaged and reduce the inflammation in the tissues. You will notice all these changes in your body once you start including broccoli in your diet.
It consists of flavonoids that help in the efficient recycling of vitamin C in the body. It is also augmented with zeaxanthin, beta-carotene, and other vigorous antioxidants. Glucoraphanin, one of the powerful compounds found in broccoli, turns into an antioxidant called sulforaphane during digestion. This sulforaphane is observed to be useful in many health benefits like managing blood pressure, reducing cholesterol levels, controlling blood sugar, and many other issues.
Improves Eye Health
Broccoli contains zeaxanthin, lutein, and beta-carotene, which are beneficial for our eye health. They help in keeping our eyes free from muscle degeneration and cataract problems. They also help repair the damage done by the harmful radiation of phones and laptop screens to the eyes.
Helps in Fighting Cancer
Broccoli is rich in phytochemicals that undergo many breakdowns in the body to form different types of healthy components. One of the compounds called glucobrassicin breaks down in your stomach into a separate component called indole-3-carbinol. This component further produces diindolylmethane or DIM in short. The DIM component has a strong effect against various types of cancers related to breast and prostate glands.
Broccoli also consists of a compound called glucosinolates, which get converted into your stomach to sulfur-containing properties that activate certain enzymes. This process helps in destroying carcinogens. The combination of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and detoxification components in broccoli makes it the best food for preventing cancer.
Reduces Cholesterol Level
Broccoli is powerfully packed with some of the best cholesterol-lowering components. It contains the soluble fibers that work effectively to bind with bile acids present in your digestive tract. This process helps easy excretion of cholesterol from the body. It is observed that the steamed broccoli works much better than the raw broccoli in lowering the cholesterol levels of the body.
Slows Down the Aging Process
The aging process of the human body is directly related to its oxidative stress and lower metabolic functions. Although you cannot control your growing age, you can make it a little slower by providing sufficient nutrients to your body. Your diet can make a significant impact on your genetic expressions and the growth of age-related diseases in your body.
As per scientific research, it is observed that sulforaphane, which is a bioactive compound present in broccoli, helps in slowing down the biochemical process of aging. It does this by increasing the number of antioxidant genes in our body. You can reduce the wrinkles, fine lines, and skin issues like acne and pigmentation by including broccoli in your daily food.
Controls Blood Sugar Fluctuations
People diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes are highly recommended to include broccoli in their diet. The antioxidants and fiber contents in broccoli help effectively in controlling the blood sugar levels at all times. It has been scientifically proven that broccoli sprouts helped in reducing insulin resistance levels in people with Type 2 Diabetes.
Helps in Detoxification of Body
Broccoli is a good source of amino acids, sulfur, and vitamin C, which helps in detoxifying the body. It removes free radicals and different toxins from the body. This process helps in blood purification and keeps your body away from toxin-related problems like itches, boils, arthritis, rheumatism, rashes, gout, and also various skin diseases like eczema and many others. Broccoli maintains the pH levels of the body with its alkaline nature.
Provides Nutrition
Broccoli is one of the good sources of fiber, protein, calcium, iron, potassium, selenium, and magnesium. It also contains vitamins A, B, C, E, K, and folic acid. All of these components have a positive impact on our health as they help in improving the immunity and boost its functionality.
How to increase the intake of broccoli in your diet
If you want to improve your health, then start including broccoli in your daily food intake. As we have already mentioned at the beginning of this article, you can find a lot of tasty recipes to fulfill your hunger. Whether you are vegetarian or a non-vegetarian, broccoli can always make your food delicious and healthy. You can use raw broccoli in salads, homemade soups, and stews. Or, you can steam it and serve along with the main course. You will also find a plethora of broccoli recipes online that you can try and add to your diet.
Conclusion
These were some of the common reasons why many people include broccoli in their diet. If you want to deal with the issues mentioned above and move towards a healthier life, then start including broccoli in your food and make your diet filled with healthy nutrients.
