Thu 15 Nov 2007
Keep Your Gut Healthy Part 2
Posted by tel under UncategorizedIt’ll come as no surprise to anyone that in order to keep your gut healthy, you have to feed it the right things!
Well, here’s one of the super foods that you really should learn to love. Then learn to eat it regularly. What am I talking about?
Broccoli.
Broccoli has many health properties, the best known of them being its ability to fight the helicobacter pylori bacterium - that’s the one linked to stomach cancers.
Various medical studies have been conducted into the amazing properties of broccoli and they’re constantly reported in the news, so I won’t go quoting a load of them here. Interestingly, it has been discovered that fresh broccoli may also help to protect the stomach from gastritis, ulcers as well as cancer because it activates antioxidants that support the cells.
Cooking broccoli is also important to get the best from the vegetable. Never overcook it or you’ll destroy all the goodness. If you’re having broccoli on its own, it is best steamed, not boiled.
But broccoli really comes into its own as a cancer-busting sledgehammer when cooked together with tomatoes - especially a tomato purée or sauce. This is because the antioxidant constituents of the cooked tomatoes bind with those in the broccoli to enhance their cancer fighting characteristics, making that duo a real powerhouse of a superfood!
Personally, I find one more ingredient almost obligatory when cooking broccoli with tomato frito. That’s to fry off some finely chopped onions first, then add the tomato frito and some chopped garlic (I prefer not to fry garlic as it burns too easily), then the chopped broccoli to make a really tasty and super-healthy pasta sauce. Adding oregano and fresh basil to the sauce gives it a great flavour and the final finishing touch is more freshly chopped (never pressed) garlic raw after cooking.
See my earlier post on garlic as to why I add it raw to food!
Terry Didcott
Alternative Cures
November 18th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
A great recipe from Campania:
Put the pan with water on the fire. Add salt, garlic cut into pieces (one “head”), olive 5-10 (green and black give different taste), olive oil enough to cover the surface (or some less). In the moment the water begins to boil (don’t make it boil for many time! The taste will be not god) put broccoli (leaves and flowers without sticks) inside and leave to boil for (about) 10 minutes. Take them from the water and eat with meat maybe or only broccoly. If you need more oil,add it. Great!
November 19th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
That sounds great, I’ll have to give it a try - although without meat, as I gave that up a while ago!
I quite often cook broccoli with tomato frito or even fresh tomatoes as they compliment one another well not only in taste, but they also enhance each other’s level of antioxdant action.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
[...] mini series on having a healthy gut, here at Alternative Cures. So as our last post on the subject, Keep Your Gut Healthy Part 5, looked at water, liquid intake and the benefits of cranberry juice, now its time to expand that a [...]