Best Source of Sulforaphane: Broccoli

Sulforaphane can be obtained from all cruciferous vegetables like kale, cauliflower or kohlrabi, with broccoli being the best source by far. Broccoli sprouts may be up to 25 times more potent than regular raw broccoli.

The more commonly known cruciferous vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, and kale, but there are many others in this family, such as collard greens, watercress, bok choy, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnips, arugula, radishes (including horseradish), wasabi, and all types of cabbage.

Cruciferous vegetables can potentially prevent DNA damage and metastatic cancer spread, activate defenses against pathogens and pollutants, help to prevent lymphoma, boost your liver detox enzymes, target breast cancer stem cells, and reduce the risk of prostate cancer progression. The component responsible for these benefits is thought to be sulforaphane, which is formed almost exclusively in cruciferous vegetables.

Beyond being a promising anticancer agent, sulforaphane may also help protect your brain and your eyesight, reduce nasal allergy inflammation, manage type 2 diabetes, and was recently found to successfully help treat autism. A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial of boys with autism found that about two to three cruciferous vegetable servings’ worth of sulforaphane a day improves social interaction, abnormal behavior, and verbal communication within a matter of weeks. The researchers, primarily from Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University, suggest that the effect might be due to sulforaphane’s role as a "detoxicant."

"A lot of people, in the lay public especially, are under the impression that all cruciferous vegetables have sulforaphane or glucoraphanin. They do not. So if you eat any cruciferous vegetables, you're getting isothiocyanates, which are all closely related to each other. They're all closely related to sulforaphane. But, for example, cabbage has essentially none. It's got other isothiocyanates that are good for you, many of them. Cauliflower has essentially none. Kale doesn't have glucoraphanin to any great extent. Except, as I recall, there's one variety, red Russian kale, that does have a substantial amount. So be careful thinking that all [cruciferous veggies have sulforaphane]. Well, all cruciferous vegetables are good for you, I think that's fair to say. But be careful assuming that all cruciferous vegetables contain sulforaphane because they don't."