Does broccoli fight cancer?

Broccoli is my go-to everyday vegetable: it’s affordable and available year-round. And the icing on the cake is that it frequently earns a top spot on “superfoods” lists. This is partially because it’s packed with an array of vitamins and minerals. And partly because it delivers a healthy dose of sulforaphane, a compound thought to thwart cancer by helping to stimulate the body’s detoxifying enzymes. EatingWell has dozens of delicious recipes for broccoli (try our Ginger Broccoli recipe below).

According to recent research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, raw broccoli provides significantly more of this beneficial nutrient than cooked. (Cooking locks sulforaphane in, making it unavailable to your body.) In the small study, men were given about 1 cup of broccoli, raw or cooked. Those who ate the raw broccoli absorbed sulforaphane faster and in higher amounts compared to those who ate it cooked. The findings add to growing evidence that links diets rich in cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale and cauliflower, to lower rates of cancer.

Bottom line: If you like broccoli, eat it raw: it’s more nutritious. (Try EatingWell’s (raw) Broccoli Salad with Creamy Feta Dressing.) Or, if you prefer it cooked, steam it until it’s cooked but still crunchy. Some research suggests this method may keep sulforaphane available.

Ginger Broccoli

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 pound broccoli crowns, trimmed and chopped (about 6 cups)
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon fish sauce (see Note)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant but not browned, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add broccoli and cook, stirring, until the broccoli is bright green, 2 minutes. Drizzle water and fish sauce over the broccoli; reduce heat to medium, cover and cook until the broccoli is just tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in vinegar just before serving.

Makes 4 servings, 1 cup each.

Per serving: 74 calories; 4 g fat (0 g sat, 2 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 8 g carbohydrate; 4 g protein; 3 g fiber; 328 mg sodium; 372 mg potassium. Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (170% daily value), Vitamin A (60% dv), Folate (19% dv).

Note: Fish sauce is a pungent Southeast Asian condiment made from salted, fermented fish. Find it in the Asian section of large supermarkets and in Asian specialty markets. We use Thai Kitchen fish sauce, lower in sodium than other brands (1,190 mg per tablespoon), in our recipe testing and nutritional analyses.

By Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.

Brierley’s interest in nutrition and food come together in her position as an associate editor at EatingWell. Brierley holds a master’s degree in Nutrition Communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. A Registered Dietitian, she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont.

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