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Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Lori
Disguised in meals for those less keen on cruciferous foods or eaten straight out, cauliflower is worth the effort.
Cauliflower is one of the vegetables that is especially good at boosting our intestinal defenses, which may lower the risk of inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis, as well as leaky gut. Cauliflower also contains a phytonutrient that acts through the Ah receptors, leads to frontline immune function against intestinal pathogens, and plays a role in boosting immune function. Bile binding—a predictor of how well a food lowers cholesterol—is another of its powers.
Like other cruciferous vegetables, cauliflower is capable of providing sulforaphane, which boosts our liver’s detoxifying enzymes. The enzymatic action from eating cauliflower may also protect brain, eyesight, fight against free radicals, induce detoxification enzymes, and help prevent and treat cancer.
Cauliflower was found to be protective in people suffering with gout, possibly because of the fiber, folate, and vitamin C, which appear to protect against uric acid buildup and gout.
To assure that the enzyme sulforaphane is created, eat cauliflower raw or utilize the “whack and wait” technique: chop the cauliflower and wait 40 minutes—enough time to produce the enzyme—which will then be heat stable. If there is no time, all is not lost! Just sprinkle your frozen or cooked cauliflower with a little dry mustard powder which also encourages the formation of sulforaphane. Steaming of cauliflower significantly improves the bile acid binding.
There is a food that offers the best of both worlds—significantly improving our ability to detox carcinogens, like diesel fumes, and decreasing inflammation in our airways, all the while improving our respiratory defenses against infections.
Dietary diversity is important because each plant family has a unique combination of phytonutrients that may bind to specific proteins within our body.
If the uric acid crystals that trigger gout come from the breakdown of purines, should gout patients avoid even healthy purine-rich foods such as beans, mushrooms, and cauliflower?
Vegetables tested head-to-head to see which boosts immune function best.
The consumption of animal fat appears to increase the growth of gut bacteria that turn our bile acids into carcinogens.
Adding myrosinase enzymes in the form of even a pinch of mustard powder to cooked cruciferous (cabbage-family) vegetables like kale, collards or Brussels sprouts can offer anti-cancer sulforaphane levels comparable to raw, removing the necessity to pre-chop for maximum health benefits.
Which foods are best at removing carcinogenic bile acids from the body: asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, eggplant, green beans, kale, mustard greens, okra, or peppers? And do they work better raw or cooked?
There is a receptor in our intestines activated by phytonutrients in cruciferous vegetables that boosts immune function (the aryl hydrocarbon [Ah] receptor).
Simple changes in diet and lifestyle may quadruple a woman’s survival rate from breast cancer.
Reducing the ratio of animal to plant protein in men’s diets may slow the progression of prostate cancer.
Tips like cutting vegetables into shapes, covertly puréeing greens into sauces, and modeling healthy behaviors can improve our children’s diets.
In addition to quantity and quality, the variety of fruits and vegetables consumed matters, as many phytonutrients are not evenly distributed among the various families and parts of plants.