H. Pylori and Broccoli Sprouts - Why You Need to Know about Them

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H. Pylori and Broccoli Sprouts - Why You Need to Know about Them

Sunday, September 6th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Here’s a bacterium you should know about: Heliobacter pylori (also called H. pylori). Most bacteria can’t survive in the acid of the stomach. This one can. Infection with Heliobacter pylori causes a lot of problems, from minor ones like stomach irritation to extremely serious ones such as stomach cancer.

I learned about this unique bacterium when I read an article written by one of my favorite health writers Dr. Joseph F. McCaffrey (his site is: www.JFMcCaffreyMD.com).

Eradicating H. pylori greatly reduces the risk of a whole host of serious health problems, including cancer.

However, eliminating H. pylori with traditional medications often proves to be difficult. Doctors typically treat the infection with at least three drugs for 2 or sometimes 4 weeks. Even with that aggressive treatment, the success rate is only around 80%.

Now there’s good evidence that a simple green sprout added to your diet can reduce or eliminate H. pylori.

The sprouts is question are broccoli sprouts.

We all know it’d be good for us if we ate more vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli, are especially beneficial. It has many important vitamin and nutrients but one that has been studied extensively is sulforaphane.

Sulforaphane is a plant nutrient that triggers the production of beneficial enzymes in the stomach. The enzymes protect DNA and reduce free radical formation.

Multiple studies studies have shown regular inclusion of vegetables containing sulforaphane protect against several types of cancer (including bladder cancer), heart disease and may even help arthritis.

Sulforaphane levels are 50 times higher in broccoli sprouts than they are in mature broccoli.

Now there’s evidence that broccoli sprouts are effective against H. pylori.

A mouse study showed that over 70% percent of the infections were cleared in the treated group while none were cleared in the placebo group.

Additional studies have shown that sulforaphane is effective against even antibiotic-resistant strains of H. pylori.

In humans, eating about 2 ounces of broccoli sprouts a day is effective against H. pylori. It will reduce, and in some cases completely eradicate, the infection.

You can sprout broccoli seeds yourself, but if that’s not your thing you can find them in most produce departments.

Even if you don’t have any concerns about H. pylori, including broccoli sprouts in your diet regularly has a lot of other health benefits. They should definitely be part of the 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables we need to include in our diet every day.

By the way, the importance of H. Flory wasn’t immediately accepted by the medical establishment. They tried to ignore the Australian researcher for the longest time. It seems he was a crazy guy that his colleagues ignored at first. You can read all about it on the Another Reason to Eat Your Broccoli page on Dr. McCaffrey’s site.

And since you’re interested healthy eating you may want to check out:

Healthy Eating in 10 Easy Steps

You’ll learn a simple way to painlessly transform the quality of your diet.

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