Sometimes I wonder why knowledgeable researchers design studies they know are wastes of time and resources, yet they perform them anyway. I’ll stop at three items this 2023 human study did that these researchers knew weren’t right.

1. Subjects’ bioavailable sulforaphane amounts from a single 16-gram serving of broccoli microgreens weren’t going to be anywhere near the lab-created sulforaphane amount. Human bioavailability doesn’t work like that, and a broccoli microgreens serving needed to be at least doubled in order to be within achievable range of other studies.

There wasn’t any reason in the Discussion section to waste the reader’s time with guesses about finding “Total mean urine SFN metabolite excretion over the 2-day study was 50.5 ± 2.7 μmol..total excreted SFN metabolites was less than the 100 µmols consumed.” They knew.

2. If these researchers wanted to improve subjects’ broccoli microgreen bioavailability, consume a serving by itself, not with bagels and orange juice. Okay, a small amount of broccoli microgreens first thing in the morning probably doesn’t taste all that pleasant. But subjects couldn’t do this one time?

I’ve eaten cruciferous 3-day-old sprouts (after microwaving them to create sulforaphane and other isothiocyanates) by themselves to start my day every day for three and a half years now, eating nothing else before, then waiting an hour after. Like my healthspan depends on it.

3. They cited three studies that found eating broccoli for a minimum of fourteen consecutive days changed gut microbiota composition. It’s silliness to analyze why a single serving didn’t have similar effects. If this study’s design was of suitable length, they could have produced the same finding from Day 1 measurements.

---

So what’s this dumbing down of sulforaphane research all about?

• Is it that researchers just aren’t serious about advancing their field?
• Do they have to burn through funding regardless of flawed designs to keep people employed?
• Some kind of academic equity requires the least knowledgeable person to be in charge?
• Or do problems with wastes of research resources lie elsewhere?

https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/12/20/3784 “Sulforaphane Bioavailability in Healthy Subjects Fed a Single Serving of Fresh Broccoli Microgreens”