To follow up Week 7 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts:

1. I changed practices per Enhancing sulforaphane content. After microwaving to achieve 60°C, I now transfer broccoli sprouts to a strainer, and allow further myrosinase hydrolization of glucoraphanin and other glucosinolates into sulforaphane and other healthy compounds. I previously cooled them immediately.

They taste better, and I stopped putting mustard in them to make them more palatable. What does letting 3-day-old broccoli sprouts cool down by themselves to increase sulforaphane do that makes them more agreeable?

Despite improving yields two weeks ago, 3-day-old broccoli sprouts started from two tablespoons of broccoli seeds still fit into a Corning Ware 16 fl. oz. / 473 ml container:

2. I made a worst-case estimate in Estimating daily consumption of broccoli sprout compounds of 52 mg sulforaphane with microwaving 3-day-old broccoli sprouts. This exceeds:

“The daily SFN [sulforaphane] dose found to achieve beneficial outcomes in most of the available clinical trials is around 20-40 mg.”

The post’s point was: how can a person guide their actions with evidence when a broccoli cultivated variety’s beneficial characteristics aren’t known? I’ll repeat a sulforaphane yields graphic from the 3-day-old broccoli sprouts have the optimal yields study for examples of unknowns:

A. If sulforaphane content was a consumer’s overriding concern. the above evidence suggests that it would be better to always eat the seeds of an unknown cultivar. A tablespoon seems like a good choice, but be sure to chew the broccoli seeds thoroughly (try for five minutes) to release myrosinase and glucoraphanin.

The first minute goes alright. Sometime after that, your mouth and the back of your throat starts to burn. That will be a reminder of an evolved function that protects plants from predators.

I haven’t successfully swallowed a mouthful of thoroughly chewed broccoli seeds without also eating something else or drinking more than just water. That might not go along with your plan for a snack or eating before bedtime.

B. The study recommended consuming 3-day-old sprouts because:

“Although germination reduces SF [sulforaphane] yield to some extent, it is beneficial to the formation and accumulation of total phenol and flavonoids, ensuring the health properties of sprouts.”

Fine, but if your unknown cultivar’s sulforaphane characteristics look like the third cultivar’s 3-day-old sprouts, you’ll have a 53% reduction in the sulforaphane weight. Should you take a 1-in-6 chance with Day 5 sprouts? Or stick with Day 3, guessing that they may still yield more sulforaphane than 3 of the 5 other cultivars’ Day 3 broccoli sprouts?

C. What if you can’t stomach the appearance of 3-day-old broccoli sprouts per the above photo, and you prefer microgreens? Should you wait until Day 7, and take a 1-in-6 chance that your unknown cultivar’s characteristics are like the highest Day 7 of the fourth cultivar? When you roll the die, does it come up 4?

Broccoli seed bulk suppliers aren’t providing evidence for their products and educating customers. Their marketing strategy depends more on buzzwords and price.

3. I compared lab reports of 3 broccoli sprouts’ cultivars in Lab analyses of broccoli sprout compounds to see if they helped rationally deal with these unknowns. It turned out that not much could be accurately inferred from lab reports, past knowing that broccoli sprouts of one cultivar produced more sulforaphane than another.

I haven’t found studies of cultivar characteristics for items I could actually purchase in bulk. I contacted five small US and Canadian suppliers to ask “Do you sell broccoli seeds that have lab evidence of the cultivar’s sulforaphane content?” Two said no so far. I contacted another supplier for the home garden business who has two dozen cultivars listed for sale and asked them the same question.

None of the broccoli seed bulk suppliers specified the cultivar on their offering. When pressed on Amazon they at best said Calabrese, which has described hundreds of cultivars. Such as two in this study, Iron Man and Marathon, which are also named Calabrese Iron Man F₁ and Calabrese Marathon F₁.

4. I’ve had only sporadic inflammation, and I’m tempted to write anecdotes of positive things. But self-reports are better evidence for emotions than for other internal events.

See Week 9 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts for follow ups.