Four cups of broccoli sprouts a day may exceed the safe dose of the cruciferous phytonutrient sulforaphane.
How Much Broccoli Is Too Much?
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It’s nice to know there were no apparent adverse effects at even 27 cups of broccoli a day’s worth of these cruciferous phytonutrients. But has to be some point at which it becomes toxic, and indeed there is. Some researchers in Italy tried to push the envelope. They’re trying to come up with an IV infusion dose to use as actual chemotherapy, and so wanted to know how high they could go.
And yes, there was a level at which you can cause DNA damage—at the equivalent of about 100 cups of broccoli a day—or actually just four cups of broccoli sprouts. They conclude: “No sign of DNA lesions could be observed at nutritionally attainable concentrations.” But that’s not really true. I mean you could eat four cups of the sprouts a day. See, they don’t know health nuts like I know some health nuts.
Someone came up to me after a lecture a few years ago down in Florida, and said how he heard that wheatgrass juice was so good for you; cleans you out. And so, he wanted to try stuffing himself with it. So he told me he calculated the volume of the human digestive tract—all ten yards or so—and proceeded to drink that amount continuously—quart after quart—until, it started coming out the other end. So I asked him, well, what happened? And he looked up at me, with an expression that I can only describe as rapture, and—no joke—said: “It was volcanic.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
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- Shapiro TA, Fahey JW, Dinkova-Kostova AT, Holtzclaw WD, Stephenson KK, Wade KL, Ye L, Talalay P. Safety, tolerance, and metabolism of broccoli sprout glucosinolates and isothiocyanates: a clinical phase I study. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(1):53-62.
- Sestili P, Paolillo M, Lenzi M, Colombo E, Vallorani L, Casadei L, Martinelli C, Fimognari C. Sulforaphane induces DNA single strand breaks in cultured human cells. Mutat Res. 2010 Jul 7;689(1-2):65-73.
Image thanks to adactio / flickr
It’s nice to know there were no apparent adverse effects at even 27 cups of broccoli a day’s worth of these cruciferous phytonutrients. But has to be some point at which it becomes toxic, and indeed there is. Some researchers in Italy tried to push the envelope. They’re trying to come up with an IV infusion dose to use as actual chemotherapy, and so wanted to know how high they could go.
And yes, there was a level at which you can cause DNA damage—at the equivalent of about 100 cups of broccoli a day—or actually just four cups of broccoli sprouts. They conclude: “No sign of DNA lesions could be observed at nutritionally attainable concentrations.” But that’s not really true. I mean you could eat four cups of the sprouts a day. See, they don’t know health nuts like I know some health nuts.
Someone came up to me after a lecture a few years ago down in Florida, and said how he heard that wheatgrass juice was so good for you; cleans you out. And so, he wanted to try stuffing himself with it. So he told me he calculated the volume of the human digestive tract—all ten yards or so—and proceeded to drink that amount continuously—quart after quart—until, it started coming out the other end. So I asked him, well, what happened? And he looked up at me, with an expression that I can only describe as rapture, and—no joke—said: “It was volcanic.”
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Shapiro TA, Fahey JW, Dinkova-Kostova AT, Holtzclaw WD, Stephenson KK, Wade KL, Ye L, Talalay P. Safety, tolerance, and metabolism of broccoli sprout glucosinolates and isothiocyanates: a clinical phase I study. Nutr Cancer. 2006;55(1):53-62.
- Sestili P, Paolillo M, Lenzi M, Colombo E, Vallorani L, Casadei L, Martinelli C, Fimognari C. Sulforaphane induces DNA single strand breaks in cultured human cells. Mutat Res. 2010 Jul 7;689(1-2):65-73.
Image thanks to adactio / flickr
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Title
How Much Broccoli Is Too Much?
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
This video is a follow-up on yesterday’s video Liver Toxicity Due to Broccoli Juice? and is video number seven of my 13-part series on the latest science on cruciferous vegetables. See Kale and the Immune System; Smoking vs. Kale Juice; DNA Protection from Broccoli; Broccoli Versus Breast Cancer Stem Cells; and Sulforaphane: From Broccoli to Breast.
For some context, please check out my associated blog posts: The Best Detox, Broccoli Boosts Liver Detox Enzymes, and Nutmeg Toxicity.
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