18 Health Benefits of Eating Broccoli – For Pregnancy and Kids

Broccoli is one of the healthiest vegetables which packed with super healthy nutrients that are beneficial for human health. The beautiful appearance, the unique texture and the fresh green leaves of broccoli are so mouthwatering especially if they are cooked to your favorite dishes. Broccoli is great for salads and even great as main course and could be served as side dish as well. Unlike other vegetables you could eat broccoli raw or you could steam it, boil it, fry it, bake it, roasted it, grill it and so on. Whatever it is broccoli is the winner when it comes to the choice of vegetables because it tastes so delicious.

What is Broccoli?

Broccoli comes from cabbage family and even from the appearance you could see some similarities with cabbage. Don’t mistaken broccoli to be part of the cauliflower varieties because they are different though they comes from the same group of species.

The name of broccoli is derived from Italian word ‘broccolo’ which has literal meaning ‘sprout’ perhaps because of the appearance of broccoli which looks like a big flower head that sprouts. Broccoli originated from Northern Mediterranean and has been cultivated since the 6th century and not after 18th century, broccoli was brought and introduced to England and then to United States and around the world. Now, you could get broccoli in all parts of the world and available in all seasons because broccoli is great to be cultivated in average temperature which is not too hot and not too cold.

Nutrients Value of Broccoli

Broccoli (Chopped and Cooked) Serving Size: 150 g
Protein	3.71 g – 7%
Carbohydrate	11.2 g – 5%
Total Fat	0.64 g
Dietary Fiber	5.15 g – 21%
Calories	54.6 – 3%
Water	139.23 g
Vitamins
Vitamin B1	0.1 mg – 8%
Vitamin B2	0.19 mg – 15%
Vitamin B3	0.86 mg – 5%
Vitamin B6	0.31 mg – 18%
Choline	62.56 mg – 15%
Folate	168.48 mcg – 42%
Panthothenic Acid	0.96 mg – 19%
Vitamin C	101.24 mg – 135%
Vitamin A	120.74 mcg – 13%
Vitamin E	2.26 mg – 15%
Vitamin K	220.12 mcg – 245%
Minerals
Boron	385.51 mcg
Calcium	62.4 mg – 6%
Chloride	35.88
Chromium	18.55 mcg – 53%
Copper	0.1 mg – 11%
Fluoride	0.01 mg – 0%
Iodine	3.12 mcg – 2%
Iron	1.05 mg – 6%
Magnesium	32.76 mg – 8%
Manganese	0.3 mg – 15%
Phosphorus	104.52 mg – 15%
Potassium	457.08 mg – 13%
Selenium	2.5 mcg – 5%
Sodium	63.96 mg – 4%
Zinc	0.7 mg – 6%
Fatty Acids
Omega 3 Fatty Acid	0.19 g – 8%
Omega 6 Fatty Acid	0.08 g

Broccoli is not only packed with nutrients but also great in taste. Its unique texture is the reasons why this vegetable is the winner. To ensure you more about putting broccoli to your daily diet, below is the list of benefits you could get from eating broccoli in daily basis. Thus, here are the health benefits of eating broccoli:

Broccoli during Pregnancy

Do you know that broccoli is actually one of the highly recommended vegetables pregnant mothers should consume during pregnancy? Below are the reasons.

Broccoli is Great Source of Folate

As mentioned in the nutritional value table above, broccoli is one of the vegetables with high content of folate. One serving size of broccoli could fulfill your daily intake up to 42%.

Broccoli Could Improve Bowel Movement to Prevent Constipation

During pregnancy, the movement inside your bowel is getting slower because the fetus will dominate the room in your stomach. Due to that constipation is likely to happen and broccoli which is rich of fiber will assist in improving the bowel movement to prevent constipation.

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Broccoli Prevent Baby Born with Birth Defect

Baby born with birth defect is mostly caused by mal nutrients. Broccoli is packed with all nutrients your baby needs, so condition like birth defect could be avoided effectively.

Broccoli Promotes Healthy Fetus Development

The combination of folate, vitamin C, vitamin K, calcium, iron and zinc is what you need for healthy fetus development because folate will make sure the optimal development of brain and nervous system, vitamin K and calcium are great for bone development while iron and zinc will make sure enough production of red blood cells. Vitamin C will make sure all of those developments are working optimally by providing protection to the immunity system.

Broccoli for Kids

It is true that it is not easy to feed kids with broccoli. Actually, there are some researches have been done that mothers who are during pregnancy are consuming a lot of vegetables, including broccoli, when the baby was born, he/she will like vegetables more than kids whose mothers were not consuming enough vegetables during pregnancy.

Broccoli is Great for Brain

Broccoli is not only great for brain development for the fetus but also great for kids in development stage.

Broccoli Promotes Healthy Development in Kids

As mentioned in some points above, broccoli is packed with nutrients like vitamin and minerals which are essential for kinds in development stage, though perhaps giving broccoli to them will be a great challenge that every mother should face.

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Broccoli Stimulates Cognitive Development in Kids

Healthy cognitive development means kids are not only active verbally but also physically. Giving them broccoli in daily basis will stimulate their cognitive development optimally.

Broccoli is Excellent Immunity Booster for Kids

During development stage, the immunity system in kids sometimes are not perfect yet because they are not getting vaccinated yet. Making sure their immunity system is fully protected is every mother’s job and broccoli could help you doing that because it is rich of vitamin C.

Broccoli is Great to Treat Diarrhea in Kids

Do you know that diarrhea in kids could be fatal? You have to make sure they are not dehydrated from the condition. Broccoli which is rich of water will hydrate your kinds and at the same time is able to stop the diarrhea.

Broccoli in Daily Life

Well, broccoli is not only great for mothers during pregnancy or for kids during their golden age but broccoli is great for everyone all ages. That’s why adding broccoli to your daily diet will do some wonders to your precious life.

Broccoli Could Cure Anemia

Anemia occurs when someone is suffering from iron deficiency. Well, broccoli is one of the vegetables that are rich of iron so you could kiss goodbye anemia for good just by adding broccoli to your daily diet.

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Broccoli is Great for Vision

Beta carotene in broccoli could act as pro vitamin A and broccoli is also rich of vitamin A itself, so those combinations are really great for vision. Eat them now when you’re still young for clear vision when you’re getting older.

Broccoli Could Fight Cancer

Some cancers like breast cancer, prostate and others type of cancer could be prevented because broccoli contains great amount of antioxidants that could prevent the development of cancerous cells.

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Broccoli As Natural Body Detox

Beside vitamin C, the combination of certain amino acids and sulphur found in broccoli are great for body detox. Consuming broccoli could help you cleaning your body from toxins and free radicals in natural way. So, you could say goodbye to any detox products which contain more chemicals that could be harmful for your body.

Broccoli Excellent for Skin

Antioxidants found in broccoli are excellent for skin. Free radicals could accelerate the aging process which will make your skin aging prematurely. However by consuming broccoli regularly, you could slow down the aging process effectively in the most natural way you could think of.

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Broccoli is Super Food for Heart

If you have diagnosed with heart problem, think before you eat is like a mantra you should remember all the time. Broccoli is one of the healthy food recommended for those who have heart problem. Moreover, broccoli also able to reduce the level of cholesterol in your body so your heart will function optimally and work without force.

Broccoli is Solution to Stomach Problems

Fiber in broccoli is great to treat stomach issue. Furthermore, magnesium and certain vitamins found in broccoli is also great to cure acidity and facilitate proper absorption of nutrients.

Broccoli Promotes Bone Health

As rich of calcium and vitamin K, surely broccoli is great for bone health. Consuming it regularly will when you’re still young is highly recommended to make sure enough stock of calcium when you’re older.

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Broccoli Regulates Blood Pressure Effectively

It is a common knowledge that vegetables that are rich of potassium is great to regulate blood pressure and broccoli which could fulfill up to 13% of potassium in your daily intake is excellent diet for those with blood pressure issue. Thus, there are the health benefits of eating broccoli.

Cautions of Broccoli

Even the most delicious vegetable like broccoli that is packed with high nutrients is still having some cautions you should aware of.

Though the case is very rare but still you need to careful with allergic reaction from broccoli.
Since broccoli is better to be consumed raw, it is better for you to purchase the organic one because of the texture of broccoli is kind of difficult to eliminate all the chemical exposures.
If you are an adult, you could consume broccoli raw but it is better to cook broccoli if you want to serve it to your kids.

The key is always consuming foods in moderate amount because no matter beneficial broccoli for your life is, still consuming it too much will only give you the harmful effect instead of the good ones. Broccoli is recommended and relatively safe to consume in daily basis and the best thing about broccoli is in single serving, broccoli is almost able to fulfill your daily intake of certain nutrients.

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