HEALTH & BEAUTY HEALTH
Fresh Take CRUCIFEROUS VEGETABLES By Dylan Roche
If you’re someone who associates fresh produce with every season except winter—strawberries and asparagus in the spring, tomatoes and watermelon in the summer, and pumpkin and apples in the fall—it’s time to think again. Cold weather is ideal for certain vegetables, and among those winter veggies in season during the month of February are the ones you might have heard classified as cruciferous: cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and kale. As far as names go, cruciferous is pretty appropriate. Even though it actually derives its name from the Latin word cruciferae, a reference to the cross-like shape of its petals, the word cruciferous almost sounds like a combination of 140
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“crunchy” and “sulfurous.” And why not? You probably associate most cruciferous vegetables with either the distinctive texture and bitter taste they have when they’re raw, or you think of the distinctive strong smell they have when they’re cooking. These sensations come from sulfur-containing compounds in the vegetables called glucosinolates. The American Institute on Cancer Research notes that glucosinolates in cruciferous vegetables have lots of health benefits you’re not going to want to miss out on. They’re good for detoxifying carcinogens, limiting the production of cancer-related hormones, and preventing tumor growth.
These health benefits are what cruciferous vegetables have in common. Even though cruciferous vegetables all come in different shapes and colors (hey, do red cabbage and broccoli really look all that much alike?), they share these cancer-fighting abilities, as well as nutrients like fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins A, C, and K. If you have an aversion to cruciferous vegetables because of the way they were served to you in childhood, think again. There are ways to prepare these vegetables so that you’re happily going back for seconds (and with what we just established about their nutritive value, why wouldn’t you?)
