"...choppin broccoli he...he....he...."
Posted on 08/25/2009 9:17:30 AM PDT by nickcarraway
"I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!" proclaimed George H.W. Bush in a 1990 news conference. America's 41st president disdained broccoli so much that he banned the vegetable from the White House menu.
Now 84, Bush may live to regret his broccoli bullying: New scientific evidence suggests that a chemical in broccoli may rejuvenate the immune system enough to ward off common diseases of aging.
At the University of California- Los Angeles, Andre Nel and colleagues recently discovered that sulforaphane, a phytonutrient in broccoli, activates antioxidant pathways at the cellular level.
Injected into the dendritic cells (immune cells in the skin) of old mice, the sulforaphane flipped on a set of antioxidant genes and enzymes sufficiently to fight free radicals of oxygen to a standstill. The immune responsiveness of the old mice rose to that of young mice in the study. The researchers believe that broccoli may protect the immune system from such common accompaniments of aging as cardiovascular disease, degenerative joint diseases, and diabetes.
The sulforaphane in broccoli and other members of the cabbage family also protects against cancer via another mechanism. In the liver, it induces the production of enzymes that detoxify carcinogenic substances.
Understanding molecular pathways is vital in unraveling the mysteries of aging. But it may be just as wise to reassess the love-hate relationship Americans have with broccoli. The sulfurous aroma it gives off while cooking is an acquired taste for many, but broccoli contains so many traditional nutrients and bioactive compounds that it deserves a high ranking on anyone's must-eat list.
Broccoli has a ripple effect on the body, revitalizing the immune system, the brain, and bones, says dietitian Suzanne Moorse (cq). She believes that Nel's study, published recently in the
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
ROTFLMAO the guy is 80+ and jumping out of airplanes. don't think not eating broccoli is bothering him at all.
I learned to appreciate it late in life....but now I love it.
Thanks for triggering that memory. Dana Carvey is one of the funniest people ever.
I Juice with broccoli on a regular basis and have become a fan of it.
I do too! I’d probably be dead if it weren’t for that stuff - I’m convinced it singlehandedly kept me alive while I was a young skull-full-o-mush vegetarian (Bambiterian) throughout my teens & early twenties.
“brussell sprouts”
Yuk, I hate that stuff!
Neanderthals Likely Didn’t Like Brussels Sprouts
Denholm Barnetson, AFP
Aug. 13, 2009 — Spanish researchers say they’re a step closer to resolving a “mystery of evolution” — why some people like Brussels sprouts but others hate them.
They have found that a gene in modern humans that makes some people dislike a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, was also present in Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The scientists made the discovery after recovering and sequencing a fragment of the TAS2R38 gene taken from 48,000-year-old Neanderthal bones found at a site in El Sidron, in northern Spain, they said in a report released Wednesday by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
“This indicates that variation in bitter taste perception predates the divergence of the lineages leading to Neanderthals and modern humans,” they said.
Substances similar to PTC give a bitter taste to green vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cabbage as well as some fruits.
But they are also present in some poisonous plants, so having a distaste for it makes evolutionary sense.
“The sense of bitter taste protects us from ingesting toxic substances,” the report said.
What intrigued the researchers most is that Neanderthals also possessed a recessive variant of the TAS2R38 gene which made some of them unable to taste PTC — an inability they share with around one-third of modern humans.
“This feature ... is a mystery of evolution,” said the report.
“These (bitter) compounds can be toxic if ingested in large quantities and it is therefore difficult to understand the evolutionary existence of individuals who cannot detect them.”
space station
WATCH VIDEO: Find out what the top organic veggies are.
The report’s lead author, Carles Lalueza Fox of the University of Barcelona, speculated that such people may be “able to detect some other compound not yet identified.”
This would have given them some genetic advantage and explain the reason for the continuation of the variant gene.
Neanderthals and modern humans shared a common ancestor from which they diverged about 300,000 years ago.
Excavations since 2000 at the site at El Sidron, in the Asturias region, have so far recovered the skeletal remains of at least 10 Neanderthal individuals.
The squat, low-browed Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170,000 years but traces of them disappear some 28,000 years ago, their last known refuge being Gibraltar.
Why they died out is a matter of furious debate because they existed alongside modern man.
The CSIS research was published in the British Royal Society’s Biology Letters.
Reminds me of the old saying.....”hotter than a broccoli fart”
If George H. W. Bush dies in 2019 at the age of 95, people will be able to say, “if he had only eaten his broccoli, he’d still be alive.” That is, if the death wasn’t a result of a skydiving mishap.
Really? I love bell peppers! Hadn’t seen ‘em on any lists.
"...choppin broccoli he...he....he...."
Vile, wretched weed.
One thing people should know is that the veggies in that group can, under some circumstances, suppress the thyroid.
That means lowering your body temp, making you sluggish, and suppressing the immune system.
I can’t tell - my normal body temp is usually 96.8 to about 97.2!!
Yuk, I hate that stuff!
The problem with brussels sprouts is they are only good for 3 days after being picked. After that they still look good but taste terrible.
If you've ever had fresh brussels sprouts, you would change your opinion. They are sweet and give you lots of energy. If you see a stalk in the supermarket, grab it. You can break them off as you need them and they will stay fresh much longer.
Ya can’t MAKE a kid eat broccoli
Really disgusting but really funny!
George Bush made it to 84, jumping out of planes, without broccoli. Not the greatest example IMO.
I've found almost any vegetable you think you hate will improve greatly if you roast them in a hot oven with a little olive oil. Sure works for Asparagus, and definitely Brussel Sprouts.
Will Obama TAX us on that too?
Did they mean that when they say they are going to tax our @sses off?
Try it steamed with some teriyaki sauce dashed on it. Yum!
Didn't have to. I just gave each kid 2 sprigs of raw broccoli, and they ate it before the Spagettios. One didn't finish the Spagettios, but all the broccoli was gone.
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