Do you eat broccoli, right?
Broccoli is a common vegetable on the table of every family. It is also a food that is beneficial to human health. A common method of cooking broccoli is boiling, but this method leads to the loss of a large amount of water-soluble vitamins, so nutritionists are not optimistic.
However, a recent study found that boiling causes not only vitamin loss, but also more severe nutrient loss. Studies have found that the cooking method of boiling affects the body's absorption of a compound called glucoside in broccoli. This compound may reduce the risk of lung and rectal cancer.
In 2011, researchers compared the levels of anti-cancer "glucoside" in the bodies of two different groups of people (who ate broccoli and ingested nutrients extracted from broccoli). They found that vegetable broccoli contains a special protein that helps the body break down glucoside for easy absorption; And this protein is not present in purified nutrients.
Specifically, people who ate broccoli had eight times as much "glucoside" in their blood and urine as another group.
In addition, the project's lead researchers believe that overcooking, such as boiling, will severely reduce the enzyme activity of this protein in broccoli. In other words, cooked broccoli is no different from consuming a purified nutritional supplement for broccoli.
Fortunately, they found a way to salvage the consequences of this miscooking: drink properly the water that has been boiled with broccoli.
Broccoli water is not a new concept. In fact, Harvard Medical School's Family Health Guidebook, compiled in 1999, recommended the retention of auxiliary broccoli water for soups, condiments, stews, and more. However, water that has been boiled with broccoli is not easy to preserve, and parasites are a big problem. Practice has shown that bacteria and parasites tend to multiply in water, leading to decay.