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Q.

Do cruciferous vegetables have anti-inflammatory benefits?

Related Topics: Vegetable, Anti-Inflammatory
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Answers From Experts & Organizations (1)

Elaine Magee, MPH, RDElaine Magee, MPH, RDSUCCESS!
Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
Nutrition
54 Answers
285 Helpful Votes
8 Followers
A.
The cruciferous vegetables — broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bok choy, kale, cabbage, and cauliflower — are “super veggies,” loaded with protective and powerful plant compounds such as sulforaphane. A new study from UCLA linked sulforaphane with anti-inflammatory action in the body.

Sulforaphane stimulates an increase in production of antioxidant enzymes in the nasal airway, which work to protect against tissue-damaging free radicals that we breathe in from pollution, pollen, tobacco, etc. When we decrease tissue damage, we are decreasing inflammation in the body. This is probably just the beginning of what this phytochemical does for us, because sulforaphane appears to increase a whole assortment of antioxidant enzymes in the body — all potentially helping to protect the body.

Sulforaphane is just one reason to eat your cruciferous vegetables. Recent research suggests that the components in these veggies are probably working together. Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, suggests that one of the phytochemicals in cruciferous vegetables, crambene, is more active when combined with another better-known phytochemical in cruciferous vegetables, indole 3-carbinol.

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