Nick HutchisonFounder and CEO, BookThinkers

Sprouts with cancer fighting properties?!

16 Feb 2023 · 1 min

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Sprouts contain glucoraphanin, which converts to sulforaphane when you chew or crush them. Sulforaphane triggers heat-shock proteins that protect cells and kill cancer cells in studies, giving sprouts potential anti-cancer benefits.

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Yeah. That's actually glucoraphanin, which is the precursor to sulforaphane. And what happens is inside of the plant, there's almost like little vacuoles, and one of them contains the glucoraphanin, and one of them contains an enzyme called myrosinase. And when you chew them or crunch them or even freeze them, the vacuoles open, they mix, and then they get a reaction. And that reaction is sulforaphane. And that reaction is part of the plant's defense mechanism, right? And that plant defense mechanism is designed to protect the plant from insects. So if an insect bites in, it crashes through those 2 vacuoles and they get something really bitter and then the insect goes away. For us, those plant defense mechanisms help us to create heat shock proteins. It helps kill cancer cells.