Cruciferous Vegetables

Emma JC

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I learned some new things today, watching a YouTube video of Dr Greger in a Q&A.

I was watching as I was eating my noodle lunch that includes brussel sprouts and now am annoyed I didn't watch it before my lunch....

Emma JC

 
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I learned some new things today, watching a YouTube video of Dr Greger in a Q&A.

I was watching as I was eating my noodle lunch that includes brussel sprouts and now am annoyed I didn't watch it before my lunch....

Emma JC



How about a quick summary.
 
He talks about lots of other subjects... regarding the cruciferous vegetables he mentions that in order to active them to get the sulporaphane you must cut/chop them at least 45 minutes in advance. Cooking a broccoli or cauliflower whole (ex. instant pot) will not activate the enzyme that make the sulphoraphane and so then the only way to activate it is to sprinkle it with mustard powder....

Emma JC
 
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He talks about lots of other subjects... regarding the cruciferous vegetables he mentions that in order to active them to get the sulporaphane you must cut/chop them at least 45 minutes in advance. Cooking a broccoli or cauliflower whole (ex. instant pot) will not activate the enzyme that make the sulphoraphane and so then the only way to activate it is to sprinkle it with mustard powder....

Emma JC
In advance of what - eating them or cooking them? ....Ok I'll watch the video, lol
 
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One of the first suggestions I got about being vegan is that I should wash and cut up all my veggies as soon as I came home from the store. I was just reminded of this lesson when I watched Gabanzo Girl's video on Big Salads. This sulforaphane thing just seems to be reinforcement for that lesson.

BTW, i didn't know what sulforaphane or glucoraphanin was. I had to look it up.

BTW2, @Emma JC, I think you spelled sulforaphane wrong in your post.

Anyway, according to the article below, you can get sulforaphane just from chewing your raw veggies. You and Gregar are talking about cutting up before cooking. But regardless this just reinforces the idea of cutting up your veggies when you get home from shopping. I think that is a lot easier rule to implement than, start cutting up your veggies an hour before you start prepping dinner.

I also think this sort of reinforces Fuhrmans suggestion of eating a big salad every day. According to Fuhrman, we probably haven't even discovered all the phytonutrients and their benefits. So a combination of both raw and cooked is a good strategy. Plus eating a lot of different kinds of food.

Maybe taking inspiration from the Flexitarians who have a haiku that says
Eat Food,
Not a lot,
Mostly plants.

We could have this one

Eat lots of plant food,
All different kinds every day,
Some raw, some cooked.

Hey, that's not bad (if I say so myself).
I'm a poet,
and I didn't even know it.

:)



 
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nice haiku!

My challenge with cutting up vegetables when they come home from the store is that I won't cut anything without washing it and I won't wash it and put it in the fridge (unless it was very very dry first).

Onions, garlic and mushrooms should also be chopped a while before cooking to allow the enzymes to do their thing.

The good news for me was the mustard powder addition.... we love mustards and spiciness so if I do forget to chop before cooking I just put mustard on it!! all good

Emma JC
 
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My challenge with cutting up vegetables when they come home from the store is that I won't cut anything without washing it and I won't wash it and put it in the fridge (unless it was very very dry first).

Is that a fear of mold? Usually, When I get home from the Farmer's market I wash and chop stuff. I don't seem to have any issues.

Another advantage of doing your washing and chopping immediately, pointed out by Garbanzo Girl, is that kids and husbands are more likely to snack on carrots and celery if they are already washed and cut up. You know how lazy those guys can be. This even works on me.
 
yeah, mold... maybe it is an old wives tale but everything I have ever heard/read says don't wash until you are ready to use it

do you store the carrots and celery in water in the fridge?

Emma JC
 
yeah, mold... maybe it is an old wives tale but everything I have ever heard/read says don't wash until you are ready to use it

do you store the carrots and celery in water in the fridge?

Emma JC

I used to store celery in water. I can't remember exactly what i did but I think i cut off the bottoms and the tops and stood it up in a pitcher so that the bottom of the stalk was submerged. the cutting off of the tops and bottoms might have been more about headroom than any kind of botanical trick. or might be related to the same reason we cut the bottom off of flowers before we put them in a vase.

Now I mostly wash them, cut them into like 3 - 6-inch pieces and lay them down is a rectangular Tupperware.

I have a special carrot brush I use to clean off the outside of the carrots. then i cut them so they fit in the Tupperware, too. My sister has these Tupperware containers that have closable vents on the top. I have been meaning to ask her what they are for. but I'm thinking that they are for vegetables so that they can breathe. Not sure if that would help keep off mold, too. Would wet carrots dry off if left in the open in the frig?

My sister never stores her fruit (like apples, peaches) in the frig. I store just about everything but bananas and potatoes in the frig. Which do you think is better? We both put our grapes and berries in the frig. Her strategy is to cut the tops off her strawberries and store them in an open bowl with a paper towel on the bottom. Mine is to cut the strawberries up and put them in Tupperware too. Then if they start to go bad I just freeze them.

The other thing I noticed at my sister's house is that she gets fruitflies. I don't.

We should probably start a new thread on this. If we do a poll we would need like 5 or 6 different threads. I gotta go but maybe I will start one later. Or maybe there is a chef who is an expert on this stuff. This isn't even a unique vegan issue.
 
My sister never stores her fruit (like apples, peaches) in the frig. I store just about everything but bananas and potatoes in the frig. Which do you think is better? We both put our grapes and berries in the frig. Her strategy is to cut the tops off her strawberries and store them in an open bowl with a paper towel on the bottom. Mine is to cut the strawberries up and put them in Tupperware too. Then if they start to go bad I just freeze them.

The other thing I noticed at my sister's house is that she gets fruitflies. I don't.
I prefer almost all fruit at room temperature, with the exception of frozen berries and bananas. But where I live, the fruit flies can be terrible if there's the slightest microscopic cut in an apple or whatever, so I have to give in to putting them in the fridge or just to prevent them from going bad (this scenario applies to tomatoes, as well, which are supposed to taste better at room temp). For room temp bananas, I put those in the fridge to stop them from ripening when they're getting close to being over-ripe. The skin will continue to turn brown but inside it will still be good for at least another day.
 
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