Broccoli! You either love it or you hate it. President George Bush, Senior, was famous for his disgust at the leafy green vegetable. But he was missing out on a healthy food source. Broccoli is something of a nutritional miracle, as it is jam-packed with nutrients.
At a Glance: Nutritional Value of Broccoli
1 cup of broccoli contains:
- 31 calories
- 2.5 grams of protein
- 6 grams of carbs
- 2.4 grams of fiber
- 1.5 grams of sugar
- .4 grams of fat
- Vitamins C, K1 and B9
- Potassium, Manganese, and Iron
Protein
Protein is an important macronutrient, and it helps your body grow and repair tissue. Protein also helps you stay full for longer, because it suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin.
Vegetables don’t typically contain much protein, compared to meat. (Actually, they do have protein, but most of it is a kind of plant protein that is hard for your digestive system to handle. So you can only extract a little bit of it.)
At 2.5 grams of protein per cup, broccoli actually carries a fair amount. A cup of spinach, by comparison, will contain less than one gram.
Carbs
Carbs are another important macronutrient. Unless you are on keto, your body gets most of its energy from them. If you are on keto, however, you should aim to minimize the amount of carbs you consume.
Broccoli is fairly low in carbohydrates, but you should be careful with it. Four or five cups of broccoli a day would probably ruin your ketosis. But compared with other vegetables, broccoli is pretty keto safe. Potatoes, for example, contain a whopping 26 grams of carbs per cup, and should be avoided.
Fiber
Almost everyone in the modern world doesn’t eat enough fiber. This leads to all sorts of problems, because fiber keeps you full for longer, and helps you stay regular in the bathroom.
Although the Standard American Diet is low in fiber, it is pretty easy to up your fiber intake significantly by eating lots of green leafy vegetables, like broccoli. Those 2.4 grams can go a long way, especially when lots of popular ingredients contain essentially zero fiber (for example, cheese, white bread, cookies, or ground beef).
Nutrients
Your body needs trace amounts of many nutrients, and broccoli contains pretty much all of them. Broccoli is high in many vitamins, including C and K, and will help your body operate smoothly.
Health Benefits
Broccoli’s nutritional profile means it creates health benefits in many ways. Studies have suggested that it can protect against cancer, lower cholesterol, and improve eyesight.
Conclusion
Broccoli is a fantastic ingredient with a high nutritional value. It is low in carbs but high in fiber, meaning it can help you stay regular even on keto. Its many vitamins offer a number of health benefits, from lowering cholesterol to protecting against cancer.
There are many ways to add more broccoli to your diet. Broccoli can be baked, fried, boiled, or steamed, but is probably most healthy steamed. Also, you can make your own broccoli-crust pizza with premade broccoli pizza crusts.