Do you know about the marvellous oestrogen detox qualities of the vegetable family known as Brassicas, or Cruciferous vegetables?
Image © Emma Seville 2022
This includes:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Sprouts
Kale
Cabbage
Bok Choi
Kohlrabi
Turnip
Rocket
Watercress
Eating a good amount of brassica and some broccoli sprouts each day is going to help you a lot with oestrogen detox, as well as being packed full of fibre and nutrients, vitamins A, E, C, K. folic acid, Iron, potassium, calcium, choline, and magnesium.
Brassicas contain a phytochemical - indole-3-Carbinole (I3C). When this meets stomach acid, 10-60% 0f it converts into Di-indolymethane (DIM) which binds to a receptor that induces the first oestrogen detox pathway.
Image © Emma Seville 2022
The other wonderful way to aid this is to eat broccoli sprouts, which provide high levels of a phytonutrient called sulforaphane. They contain two ingredients: Glucoraphanin and myrosinase which, when the sprouts are chopped or chewed up, bond together to form sulforaphane .
Sulforaphane is our friend because it works in a different way to DIM, which only works at the start of the three step process, Sulforaphane works all the way through. Getting hold of used oestrogen wherever it is in the gut and taking it out in our urine and poop!
Re-circulating oestrogen metabolites are a cause of hormonal cancers so it is well worth making sure these foods are a frequent part of your diet, and looking after our liver and gut health to help avoid this.
Because of the liver’s part in all of it, alcohol and xenoestrogens (more on those in my next blog) just ain't your friend!
You can buy broccoli sprouts in most health food shops and deli's, or grow your own- very easily, bags of organic broccoli seeds are readily available from the same places!
Don't go eating your socks though 😂
These are my favourites for obvious reasons!