What’s so good about mustard?
If you prefer your cruciferous vegetables – like broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts – cooked rather than raw, you lose some of the health benefits through heating. But if you sprinkle your vegetables with mustard powder AFTER cooking it will restore the enzyme (called myrosinase) that produces the active ingredient sulforaphane. Similarly if you buy your broccoli frozen, you don’t get the full benefits because the pre-freeze processing and common cooking methods destroy its anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. The solution? Add some mustard seeds.
If you don’t like mustard, you can substitute it with any of the following:
- raw red radishes
- raw cabbage
- raw watercress
- a quarter of a teaspoon of horseradish or wasabi
All these foods contain myrosinase.
Click here for more of my cruciferous conversation with Julie Clift on Brisbane and Gold Coast ABC radio.
Please forward this Health-e-Byte to anyone who prefers their broccoli cooked rather than raw.
Read previous Health-e-Byte Broccoli just got even better
