Type 2 Diabetes – The Benefits of Broccoli for Diabetics
Broccoli is known as being one of the world’s best super foods. But while everyone knows it’s good for you, few know exactly why it’s good for you. If they did, perhaps more people would willingly eat it.
Broccoli’s main health benefit is it provides substantial protection from free radicals. How does it do this? It’s all in your blood. Research also shows broccoli contains sulphurophanes, and other types of phytonutrients that helps to protect your body from cancer. These components remove harmful toxins from your body and help restore overall good health.
Broccoli also provides protection for your blood vessels. When blood vessels become damaged, the risk of the individual developing heart disease increases four-fold. Although this type of damage can also be caused by:
your diet,
lack of exercise,
smoking,
alcohol consumption,
stress, and
genetics,
another major contributor to heart disease is Type 2 diabetes. Since having Type 2 diabetes dramatically increases the risk of developing free radicals, now the odds are really stacked against you.
Free radicals go to work to tear down and destroy your body. This issue in harmful disease such as cancer, causes you to age prematurely, and unnecessarily wear out your bodies. Studies show that just consuming regular amounts of broccoli reduces this effect by a whopping 75 percent.
Besides its attack on free radicals, broccoli also contains substantial amounts of helpful vitamins and nutrients. Some of the most abundant are:
magnesium,
thiamine,
iron,
calcium,
phosphate,
zinc riboflavin,
folate and niacin, as well as
an ample supply of vitamins B6 and vitamin C.
Need more reasons to eat broccoli? How about the little known fact it contains protein, is low in carbs and is fat-free. How much healthier can you get?
Some people feel the only way they can stomach broccoli is to smother it with cheese sauce. But there are other ways to prepare it that are tasty.
try steamed broccoli with some sprinkled butter or other flavored sprinkles on top. Or
hide it in a dish with other ingredients such as a healthy casserole.
For those who don’t particularly care for it in its original state, they should try broccoli sprouts. Broccoli sprouts have very little flavor so they won’t overpower a salad, which happens to be their most common use. But broccoli sprouts do manage to pack quite a boost to your health. As healthy as broccoli is, the sprouts carry approximately 100 times the benefits of regular broccoli.