Hello there!👋
This is the Spira Farms newsletter. By being here and eating cruciferous plants you have a up to 22% less chance of dying. Good job being alive, go us! 🏆
Today we are going to talk about:
- The Crazy Cat Lady of Broccoli 🥦🐈
Why do we want to eat broccoli?
I am not sure if there are many people who talk about broccoli as much as I do, and if there are I do not want to meet them. 🤔
Broccoli was our gateway drug into microgreens, the research and learnings from it aligned with so many of our problems, we went all in and started a farm as a result of it. Today, I am going to share why I am the crazy cat lady of microgreen broccoli 🐈.
Broccoli is one of the MOST diverse plants we can eat nutritionally. Before, I dive into my favorite things, let’s talk about all the other amazing reasons to eat this plant.
Again, broccoli is one of the most diverse plants in terms of its vitamins and minerals. If you want to do a deep dive of their nutrition here is the USDA source.
Here are the highlights:
1 cup of Microgreen Broccoli = 70% of the vitamin C you need for the day.
Contains Manganese which if you like healthy bones maybe this is the way instead of drinking milk like those commercials said. (If I drink milk and broccoli do I become a super hero…?😯) Manganese is also awesome at glucose regulation, and is itself an antioxidant.
Contains Folate (Vitamin B9) – Do you like blood cells and energy? Get this stuff.
Potassium if you like your cells and want to keep them jacked 💪 this is something you’d like to have.
Vitamin K1, if you want your cuts to heal it would be good to keep some of this handy.
Other cool things – magnesium (did you know many healthy individuals have a deficiency and don’t even know? If your not sure go eat pumpkin seeds or almonds there is PLENTY), iron, phosphorus, calcium, copper, zinc, vitamins A and more.
I can go on, point is there is a lot of good stuff. There are 2 other benefits that really drive me to love this food 👇
Raw.
Here’s the thing, American culture has taught us to use food kind of wrong.
Do you heat up your broccoli florets? 99/100 said yes and we have that one oddball that prefers the raw broccoli florets (tough sell). Thing is, that weirdo (I am NOT apologizing) who ate broccoli raw is actually right if you care about nutrition. Heating up produce murders anti-inflammatories, and this is especially true with Broccoli. I can now get my anti-inflammatories because I will eat broccoli raw, when its a microgreen.
Now lets talk about THE reason to eat broccoli.
Sulforaphane.
Hate cancer? Why give it a chance? 🥷
We are all constantly fighting cancer. We do not sporadically start growing it and have a major fight, your body is constantly identifying and eliminating the threat your entire life. Cancer is when cells become clever and hide their identity so our cells cannot identify them as a threat. 🕵️
Okay so what can we do here? 🤔
😯 Men who at 2 half cup servings of broccoli reduced their bladder cancer chance by 51%
🚬Smokers who eat 1/2 a cup of cruciferous vegetables a week had a 55% reduction in lung cancer risk.
Even for those who have cancer this stuff does AMAZING things
The list goes on, there are references to what cruciferous vegetables have done for fighting cancers for individuals who have it. Sulforaphane is the main reason in these vegetables that is contributing to the major health benefits we want. It is deactivating enzymes in us that can lead to carcinogens. It is also preventing DNA adducts, which is when our DNA is bound to cancer-causing chemicals.
We’ve been dealing with cancer in my family for more than four years now. I am not suggesting by any means that broccoli is a cure to cancer. This for us, has been supplemental action that we can take to help with the fight. For myself personally, it is a cure to anxiety allowing me to do something for my family and friends in their battle. Health issues can flip life on it’s head. If I can do something for myself to elongate my times between health issues, I try to do it. Especially if its something as just eating food. ✌️