Broccoli ranks right up there with Brussels sprouts when it comes to vegetables that are hard to love. (Some people are simply wired to hate
bitter greens.) But scientists recently added yet another reason for
the broccoli-averse to just get over it. Turns out the cruciferous bunch
not only helps prevent heart disease and repairs skin damage (and
improve eye health, fight colds, and keep blood sugar levels low), it
can protect our bodies from air pollution too.
A new study published in Cancer Prevention Research
found that broccoli compounds help us flush out benzene through our
urine. A known carcinogen, benzene can be found anywhere from paint
thinner to car exhaust.
When research subjects drank tea made of boiled broccoli sprouts for
12 weeks, their excretion rate of the chemical shot up by 61 percent.
The beverage also upped the level of acrolein—a pollutant inhaled from
sources such as tobacco smoke and power-plant emissions—by 23 percent in
the participants’ urine.
Read more: http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/06/21/broccoli-might-be-our-best-defense-against-air-pollution?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-06-23
No comments:
Post a Comment