Doctor urges people to ‘wait 10 minutes’ before eating broccoli

A doctor is urging people to never eat broccoli again if they’re consuming it a certain way. Dr Sara Marin Berbell explained the reason for this is that there’s a crucial step you may be missing – and you probably don’t know you’re making the mistake.

In a video, the doctor shared that her dinner that night was broccoli with pepper, lemon and salt. She lets it rest for at least 10 minutes, although the longer the better – with the 40 to 90-minute mark being ideal.

But before you do any of this, she warned: “Never eat broccoli like this again. When you cook it without cutting it, you are losing almost all of its properties, like protecting you against cancer.

“When you cut broccoli, you activate its main compound known as sulforaphane, which gives broccoli its protective power. The smaller you cut it, the more activation there is. In broccoli, there are two substances that are separate, the inactive protective part (inactive protective sulforaphane) and the part that activates it (activating myrosinase).”

Once chopped, she continued: “The substances mix, like lemon and bicarbonate, and boom, the protective substance is activated. So next time, cut it and wait 10 minutes for the activation to take place.

“If you eat it raw with a splash of lemon, it’s ideal for your microbiota because when you cook it, the activating substance is lost, but if you boil it because you digest it better, do so for three to five minutes and mix it with good mustard since this also contains an activating substance.”

As mention by Dr Sara, the microbiota expert explained that once cut, broccoli’s main compound, sulforaphane, is activated. According to one study: “Sulforaphane, a naturally occurring cancer chemopreventive, is the hydrolysis product of glucoraphanin, the main glucosinolate in broccoli.”

Hydrolysis needs enough active myrosinase, but processing can damage the enzyme and reduce hydrolysis. In the study: “Thermal inactivation of myrosinase from both broccoli and mustard seeds was studied. Thermal degradation of broccoli glucoraphanin was investigated in addition to the effects of thermal processing on the formation of sulforaphane and sulforaphane nitrile.

“Limited thermal degradation of glucoraphanin (less than 12%) was observed when broccoli was placed in a vacuum-sealed bag (sous vide) and cooked in a water bath at 100°C for 8 and 12 min.”

The study found that “boiling broccoli in water prevented the formation of any significant levels of sulforaphane due to inactivated myrosinase. However, addition of powdered mustard seeds to the heat processed broccoli significantly increased the formation of sulforaphane”.

Story Saved

You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.