One large stalk of cooked broccoli contains:
25 calories; 15 mg Sodium; 2 g Fiber; 3 g Protein; 50 mg Calcium; 220 mg Potassium; 90 mg Vitamin C; 2500 IU of Vitamin A; 1/2 mg Iron.
Since many people eat more than 1 stalk at a time, broccoli is a mother lode of nutrition!
- One medium spear has three times more fiber than a slice of wheat bran bread.
- Broccoli is also one of the richest sources of vitamin A in the produce section.
- But the real surprise is this vegetable’s potent cancer-fighting components.
At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, food chemist Dr. Paul Talalay and his team have discovered that broccoli is rich in substances called isothiocyanates — chemicals shown to stimulate the body’s production of its own cancer-fighting substances, called “phase two enzymes.” According to Talalay, these enzymes, in turn, neutralize potential cancer-causing substances before they have a chance to damage the DNA of healthy cells.
