I must confess that I hate broccoli (Brassica oleracea) a member of the nutritious cruciferous family. I cannot tolerate the smell of it cooking or the texture of its florets. It repulses me in every way. However, I will surprise you with the fact that I eat it every day. It has anti-cancerous properties, and I am a ten-year cancer survivor with no wish of recurrences. I survive this vegetable’s onslaught of repulsiveness by blending it into a shake with tasty fruits and vegetables:
½ a banana
Frozen berries
Slice of lemon
Handful of parsley
Slice of daikon radish (good for cleansing the liver)
Slice of ginger (good for digestion and warming in Chinese medicine)
Tsp of turmeric (good to fight colon cancer)
Dash of cinnamon (good for fibroids)
½ tsp hemp hearts (good for fighting cancer)
Water
This is my morning wake-up shake and the broccoli is rich in fiber, beta-carotene, vitamins C, and K which detoxify the stomach and colon. It gives immune and antioxidant support and has B vitamins and manganese. It also has as much calcium as milk and helps detoxify carcinogens to flush out the body. I feel pretty good knowing I can take in this vegetable though it is repulsive to me.
It was cultivated from cabbage in Italy in ancient Roman times and brought to England via Antwerp in 1720 by Peter Sheermakers. America began commercializing it in the 1920s. Before then it was considered an exotic and planted by Thomas Jefferson at his famous gardens at Monticello where it thrived in the moderate and moist climate. A cross between broccoli and cauliflower created the cultivar Romanesco in 1988. Its leaves also became what we now know as kale. This is why all these popular vegetables have similar properties and are known to be anti-cancerous. It is important to put them into your diet.
A study was done on Polish immigrants to the United States. It was noted that their rates of cancer increased once they arrived and lived there for several years. The main difference in their diet was that they found they ate less cruciferous vegetables.
Sources: www.mdidea.com and Wikipedia.org
