We are overrun with information about what we should and should not eat, and every health blogger worth their weight in granola bars will tell you about all the supplements and super-foods you should be consuming to stay young, hot and and fighting fit.
But did you know that two of the absolute healthiest things you can eat are neither expensive nor hard to get a hold of? According to doctor and author of ‘How Not To Die: Discover The Foods Scientifically Proven To Prevent And Reverse Disease’, Dr Michael Greger, making sure you consume just one serving a day of broccoli and spinach will dramatically improve your odds for living a long and healthy life.
In fact, according to Greger, broccoli has properties that can protect against cancer and treat autism, while spinach is now hailed the healthiest food on the planet. (Take that, kale!)
“Broccoli is incredible,” Greger recently explained to the Daily Mail. “It can prevent DNA damage and metastatic cancer spread; activate defences against pathogens and pollutants; help to prevent lymphoma; boost the enzymes that detox your liver; target breast cancer stem cells; and reduce the risk of prostate cancer progression.”
The doctor hails sulforaphane, a component which is formed almost exclusively in cruciferous vegetables, responsible for all this goodness.
“Sulforaphane may also help protect your brain and your eyesight, reduce nasal allergy inflammation and manage type 2 diabetes,” he explains.
And the benefits of this supermarket hero does not stop there.
“It was even recently found to help treat autism”, Greger explains. “A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomised trial of boys with autism found that two to three servings of cruciferous vegetables a day improves social interaction, abnormal behaviour and verbal communication — within a matter of weeks.”
Eat it raw – or cut and wait
But while many of us often include broccoli when we are cooking dinner, Greger claims we are preparing it wrong – meaning we are loosing out on most of its magical healing powers.
“To get the full benefit of the sulforaphane, you need to eat your cruciferous vegetables raw – or adopt what I call the Hack and Hold method”, he explains. “That’s because there’s an enzyme that doesn’t activate the sulforaphane until raw broccoli, say, is chopped or chewed. And that enzyme is destroyed by cooking — unless you wait.”
What the expert suggests, is that you should chop your broccoli – then wait 40 minutes before you cook it. And if you want to give your health another big boost, try to eat some spinach every day too.
“Dark green, leafy vegetables are the healthiest food on the planet”, Greger explains. “As whole foods go, they offer the most nutrition per calorie.”
A team of researchers at Harvard recently conformed this, and found these vegetables to be “associated with the strongest protection against major chronic diseases.”
