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Points of Interest on Broccoli

The word "broccoli" comes from the Italian words meaning "branch" or "arm".

• Food experts recommend that we eat at least 3 servings of broccoli a week.
• Is a variety of cabbage.
• Is grown for the immature flower panicles.
• Americans are eating six times as much broccoli as they were in 1970.
• One cup (156) serving of cooked broccoli contains only 44 calories and supplies almost the twice the Recommended Daily Intake for Vitamin C.
• The same one cup serving is also an excellent source of foliate and Vitamin E.

History of Broccoli

Very little, fact, is written about broccoli's early days. It has been suggested, that because the Romans wrote nothing about the creation or arrival of the vegetable, that it was already established as a vegetable there around 200BC. Broccoli is thought to have been invented in Italy by farmers crossing cauliflower seeds with pea seeds.

Ancient Romans did grow broccoli and it remained an Italian vegetable until the French began consuming it in the 1600's. By the 1720's, broccoli was being cultivated in England.

Until the 1920's there was not much broccoli in the United States. It was then that 2 brothers brought broccoli into the States. It was during this time that two‚ brothers arrived from Italy and began their own produce company.

The Benefits of Broccoli

Broccoli is low in calories and high in vitamins A and C, riboflavin, and fiber. It also contains the minerals iron, potassium and calcium.

Broccoli belongs to the cruciferous vegetable family. Eating cruciferous vegetables (also cauliflower and cabbages) can help protect against cancer, your risk of heart disease, cataracts and stroke, due to their richness of flavoniods (antioxidants) and indoles. Broccoli contains sulforaphane, which may prevent, or even cure, breast cancer.

Classification

Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Capparales
Family: Cruciferae
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