Sulforaphane – Why Your Cells Need Cruciferous Vegetables

Sulforaphane is a miraculous compound that enhances brain function, promotes healthy fat distribution, and greatly reduces the risk of cancer, brain diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It is like a health insurance policy for your cells. And guess what? It’s all natural. Sounds like another supplement sales pitch, right? That’s what I thought when I first heard about it, but then I dug through the research.

In a scientific article published by Dr. Thomas W. Kensler and his colleagues, sulforaphane is described as one of…

…the most potent naturally occurring inducers of Nrf2 signaling.”

Nrf2 is a cytoprotective (cell-protecting) pathway that protects your cells from oxidative stress and removes toxins from the body. This means that nrf2 plays a key role in preventing and reversing common health issues like:

  • Heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Cancer
  • Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and other brain diseases
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • ALS
  • Autism and other behavioral disorders
  • Chronic pain
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Asthma

The best part is that you won’t have to climb to the top of a mountain or scavenge the Amazon jungle and sit through a 6-hour ceremony to reap the benefits of nrf2. All you need to do is eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage. Sulforaphane will be yours.

Related: Foods, Vitamins, and Herbs That Kill Cancer

Where Does Sulforaphane Come From?

Technically, sulforaphane does not naturally occur in cruciferous vegetables. A healthy, mature broccoli plant, for example, will contain no sulforaphane. However, as soon as the plant is damaged an enzyme called myrosinase is released that reacts with glucoraphanin, a compound that is sulforaphane’s precursor.

This process is not a gift from nature to ensure human health, it is actually the plant’s defense mechanism. Sulforaphane is designed to be toxic to the plant’s predators. In fact, it can be toxic to humans in large quantities. For example, when we ingest the majority of our calories from raw cruciferous vegetables, we can impair our thyroid function.

However, in small quantities, sulforaphane creates a hormetic effect. A hormetic effect is what happens when we gain beneficial effects from something that would be toxic or lethal in higher doses. For example, daily cold exposure triggers brown fat production. This is a healthier version of fat that increases our energy and heat production. This means that cold exposure has a hormetic effect on our bodies, but if we are exposed to frigid temperatures for too long, we will begin to accumulate frostbite instead of brown fat.

Although you won’t get frostbite from eating too many cruciferous vegetables, very high intakes of these vegetables have been found to cause hypothyroidism. This is because compounds in cruciferous vegetables called glucosinolates can be broken down into goitrins in the body. These goitrins interfere with the production of thyroid hormones causing hypothyroidism. However, if you maintain an adequate iodine intake, you will need to eat a lot more cruciferous vegetables to experience adverse effects. Fortunately, you won’t have to eat a tremendous amount of cruciferous vegetables. The benefits of sulforaphane can be experienced by eating just 3 to 5 servings per week. In fact, doing this may prevent cancer.

Cancer Prevention? Yeah, That Too

If you dig through the literature on sulforaphane, you will find an abundance of studies on cancer. Sulforaphane has been found to prevent the formation of breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. One study found that a diet of three to five servings per week of cruciferous vegetables is sufficient to decrease the risk of cancer development by 30% to 40%. It was also found that consuming one portion of cruciferous vegetables per week is associated with a significantly reduced risk of oral cavity and pharynx, esophageal, colorectal, breast, and kidney cancer.

These profound effects are not only due to sulforaphane’s cell protecting properties. Sulforaphane also has the capacity to be selectively toxic to malignant cells, while simultaneously enhancing the detoxification of aflatoxins and airborne toxins like smoke. It also has been shown to have potent affects on the brain.

Brain Transformation

Sulforaphane is essential for brain health, especially in healing damaged brains. In cases of traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease, sulforaphane has been found to improve memory and learning abilities. Scientists think that this may be associated with its ability to promote neurogenesis and reduce the aluminum load in the brain.

Autism is also positively affected by sulforaphane. In one study, autistic children that supplemented with sulforaphane showed an improvement in social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication.

Related: Increase your IQ with the Right Foods, Herbs, Vitamins

Fat Loss & Gut Health

Studies have found that sulforaphane triggers the creation of brown fat in mice. Brown fat is a healthier form of fat storage that actually increases energy consumption.

Sulforaphane also improved the gut flora of mice compared to other mice that were fed the same diet without sulforaphane. This may mean that sulforaphane can change our body composition by promoting brown fat storage and a healthy gut flora while staving off unhealthy, inflammatory white fat.

Related: Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases

And There’s More

Studies have also found that sulforaphane aids in the reversal of fatty liver disease, preventing lung damage from inhaled toxins, reducing hypertension, and improving mood.

Okay. That’s it.

I am sure there is more, but that is enough of the science for today. Let’s get practical.

How to Get More Sulforaphane

Simply eating cruciferous vegetables is not enough to guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. Many different environmental factors can cause glucoraphanin to not be converted into sulforaphane. And glucoraphanin is useless to the body.

One environmental factor that reduces the production of sulforaphane is heat. Studies have found that exposing cruciferous vegetables to temperatures higher than 158 degrees Fahrenheit deactivated the myrosinase enzyme leading to a sharp decrease in sulforaphane production. This suggests that cooking your cruciferous vegetables will rob you of the benefits of sulforaphane. But before you make a raw kale salad or have some raw broccoli to get your daily dose of sulforaphane, it is important to note that myrosinase activity decreases as the cruciferous vegetable matures. Luckily, there is a much easier and tastier way to increase the amount of sulforaphane in your meals.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

Even if you eat raw broccoli or cauliflower, you are still getting 10 to 100 times less sulforaphane than when you eat 3-day-old broccoli sprouts. In fact, one ounce of broccoli sprouts can convert to as much sulforaphane as one-and-a-half pounds of mature broccoli. This is mainly because myrosinase activity is increased in young sprouts compared to adult plants. This increase in enzyme activity helps ensure that the vulnerable sprout can protect itself into adulthood.

The increased activity of the myrosinase enzyme in broccoli sprouts also helps you to convert the glucoraphanins from other vegetables in your meal to sulforaphane. You can reap these benefits with every salad by garnishing it with broccoli sprouts. Dr. Rhonda Patrick suggests adding around 2.5 ounces of broccoli sprouts to your daily smoothies, salad, or snack.

Supplementing with Broccoli Sprouts

Buying a broccoli sprout supplement may seem like the best option, but don’t let the tempting price of $10 a month fool you. This will cost you 20x more than buying broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that the myrosinase enzyme will be present or active.

When you buy fresh broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. Store bought broccoli sprouts will cost you about $1 per ounce or you can easily grow them at home for the cost of around 9 cents per ounce.

Related: You Need Sulforaphane – How and Why to Grow Broccoli Sprouts

Conclusion

Sulforaphane is a compound that comes with a list of beneficial effects that gets longer as we continue to study it. You can reap the benefits of sulforaphane by eating around 5 servings of raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables a week. However, the simplest and most effective way to consume sulforaphane is by eating broccoli sprouts.

Just one ounce of broccoli sprouts converts to as much sulforaphane as one-and-a-half pounds of mature broccoli. A reliable source of broccoli sprouts is your local organic food store, but this added expense can easily break your grocery budget. The cheapest way to supplement your diet with broccoli sprouts is by growing them at home. After 5-7 days you can have up to a half pound of sprouts for 10x less than the cost of broccoli sprouts in the store.

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You Need Sulforaphane – How and Why to Grow Broccoli Sprouts

Brain Enhancing, Fat Burning, Cancer Preventing, DIY Homemade Supplementation

It is not another drug or folk remedy. You can prevent many forms of cancer, improve gut health, establish healthy body fat composition, enhance brain function, detoxify your cells, and reduce depression with this one miracle compound.

It’s called sulforaphane, and it is naturally produced when cruciferous vegetables are damaged. We initiate the reaction that creates sulforaphane with the process of chewing, which allows us to reap a plethora of benefits that make the scientific research on sulforaphane look like a late night TV ad.

The Scientific Sales Pitch

Although there are many proposed effects of sulforaphane, let’s stick with what has been studied. Sulforaphane has been shown to prevent the growth of many cancers including breast, prostate, colon, skin, lung, stomach, and bladder cancer. The risk of common diseases like diabetes, heart disease, gastric disease, neurodegenerative disease, ocular disease, and respiratory diseases are reduced with the consumption of sulforaphane as well. Even behavioral disorders like autism have been helped with sulforaphane supplementation. And if that isn’t enough, sulforaphane has been shown to decrease fat gain and improve body composition in mice. All this is possible because sulforaphane stimulates protective and detoxifying mechanisms in the cells. This allows the cells to eliminate environmental toxins like mercury and air pollutants from the body and repair themselves from the damage caused by oxidative stress.

The Best Source of Sulforaphane

With positive and protective effects on almost every cell in the body, sulforaphane is like a health insurance policy for your cells. This compound can be found in raw or minimally cooked cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

It is important to note that sulforaphane cannot be produced from vegetables that are cooked at a temperature above 158 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because the enzyme that helps create sulforaphane is deactivated when is heated above 158 degrees Fahrenheit.

The enzyme that helps create sulforaphane may also become less active in mature cruciferous vegetables, so it is uncertain how much sulforaphane you will actually get from mature plants. This is where crucifer sprouts save the day. Due to their increased enzyme activity, crucifer sprouts are the best source of sulforaphane. But one sprout, in particular, may provide the most sulforaphane of them all. That sprout is the broccoli sprout.

Where To Get Broccoli Sprouts

After seeing the benefits of broccoli sprouts it is tempting to add that $10 bottle of broccoli sprout capsules to your cart, but don’t let the tempting price fool you. At $10 per bottle, you are spending 20x more than if you bought broccoli sprouts in the store, and supplements can’t even guarantee that they actually have any sulforaphane or enzyme activity.

With store bought broccoli sprouts you can at least guarantee that you are getting sulforaphane in your diet. However, store bought broccoli sprouts will run you about $1 per ounce when you can easily grow them at home for the cost of ~9 cents per ounce.

With one 64 oz mason jar, a seed strainer lid, broccoli seeds, a glass bowl, and water you can grow up to 15 pounds of sprouts per pound of broccoli seeds. That means you can have a half pound of sprouts every week for over 6 months. Fifteen pounds of broccoli sprouts would cost you $240 if you bought them in the store or almost $5,000 in capsule form, and you can get them for less than $50.

How to Grow Your Own Broccoli Sprouts

Growing your own broccoli sprouts is simple and easy. It doesn’t require gardening skills, and after less than a week you can have up to half a pound of delicious broccoli sprouts for the cost of less than a dollar.

Here is what you need:

  • Organic broccoli seeds for sprouting (~$15 per pound)
  • A 64-ounce mason jar (~$10 per jar)
  • Strainer sprouting lids that fit the mouth of your jar (~$9 per lid)
  • A glass bowl
  • A cool, dark place
  • Optional: full spectrum light
  • Optional: salad spinner

Estimated yield: 3 tablespoons of seeds will most likely sprout to a half pound of broccoli sprouts in about 5-7 days.

Step by Step Guide to Sprouting Your Broccoli Seeds

Step 1

Put 3 tablespoons of broccoli seeds in your mason jar, cover the seeds with cool, distilled water or spring water (60-70 degrees Fahrenheit), and swish the water around gently. Put your mason jar, with the sprouting lid on, in a cool dark place for 6-12 hours to allow the seeds to soak.

Step 2

Drain off the water by tipping the mason jar to let the water pass through the strainer. Take the glass bowl and rest your mason jar inside of it so that the remaining water can drain. Put it in a cool dark place for 8-12 hours to let the seeds drain and sprout.

Tip: make sure the jar is tipped enough so that the seeds can drain and have adequate airflow. The most common cause of poor sprouting is inadequate drainage.

Step 3

Rinse the seeds 2x daily and put the jar back in the bowl in a cool dark place so it can drain. It might help to set reminders on your phone.

Here’s what mine looked like 60 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Tip: Try not to expose them to too much light until most of them are sprouted with tiny yellowish leaves.

Step 4

After 3 to 4 days you will notice white sprouts with tiny yellowish leaves coming from the seeds. When this happens for most of your seeds, you can begin exposing them to indirect sunlight or a full spectrum light bulb so that they can start to green up. Continue to do the same rinsing process as before.

84 hours after the beginning of the first rinse:

Step 5

After a day or two of light exposure, rinse them once again, and let them drain overnight. The next morning they will be ready to eat!

After the first day of sun exposure:

The finished product, about 6 ounces of broccoli sprouts from 2 and a half tablespoons of broccoli seeds:

 

Bonus Step: How to Increase Sulforaphane content by 3.5x

Studies have actually been conducted to find out how to increase the bioavaliability of sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts. One study found that If you want to get the most out of your broccoli sprouts, you must never expose them to temperatures greater than 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit). However, if you let them sit in 65 to 70 degree Celsius (149 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) water for 10 minutes, you can increase sulforaphane content by around 3.5 fold. The greatest increase was found at 70 degrees Celsius (158 degrees Fahrenheit) with a rapid decrease when the sprouts were exposed to greater temperatures.

To try this broccoli sprout hack at home all you need is a pot, thermometer, a glass bowl, a timer, water, and your broccoli sprouts. Put your broccoli sprouts in a glass bowl while you heat up the water in the pot until it reaches 70 degrees Celsius. Cover your sprouts with the water and set your timer for ten minutes. Check the temperature of the water that the sprouts are in every couple of minutes and add 70 degree Celsius water to the broccoli sprouts periodically to maintain the temperature between 65 and 70 degrees Celsius. After 10 minutes, drain the sprouts, pat they dry, eat them, add them to a smoothie, or store them in the refrigerator.

If that description was to confusing, check out how Dr. Rhonda Patrick hacks her broccoli sprout sulforaphane content:

How to Store Your Sprouts for up to Six Weeks

To keep the sprouts fresh and nutritious for six weeks follow these steps:

  1. Eight to twelve hours after the final rinse and drain, pat your sprouts dry and/or use a salad spinner until the sprouts are reasonably dry. Nothing kills produce quicker than refrigerating it wet.
  2. Put the sprouts in a plastic bag or container that will ensure minimal exposure to air. If they are exposed to too much air they may dry out completely.
  3. Refrigerate them for up to six weeks and eat them whenever and however you like.

Enjoy!

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