Broccoli sprouts reduce oxidative stress in type 2 diabetes
31 May 2011
Laura Alvarez
Germinating seeds or spouting is a convenient way to introduce highly nutritious and rich in enzymes that could promote a good healthy diet.
A recent study carried out by Bahadoran and co-workers from the Obesity Research Center (Tehran, Iran) and published in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition assessed the effect of consumption of broccoli sprouts in oxidative stress in humans. Reducing oxidative stress in humans may have significant beneficial implications since it is associated with cellular injury and with the development of diseases such as atherosclerosis.
For this purpose Bahadoran and co-workers used several parameters to assess oxidative stress such as serum total antioxidant capacity, total oxidant status, oxidative stress index, malondialdehyde and oxidized low density lipoprotein.
The clinical trial consisted in a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial with a total of 63 patients. The authors showed that consumption of broccoli sprouts during a period of 4 weeks (group 1 (n=21) 10g/d, group 2 (n=22) 5g/d and group 3 (n=20) placebo), had a favourable effect on oxidative stress status in type 2 diabetes patients.
Also, animal studies have shown that daily consumption of broccoli sprouts slowed the development of hypertension in hypertensive rats and improved endothelial function of the carotid arteries (Wu et al, 2004).
However, in another recent study, trying to establish the effect of broccoli sprouts in hypertension in humans, showed no significant differences. Broccoli sprouts were administered as an antioxidant supplement for patients with established hypertension to investigate whether if a four week treatment with broccoli sprouts (10 g/d) would have a beneficial effect on blood pressure, blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis (Christiansen et al, 2010). However, no significant changes were observed in serum cholesterol levels, blood pressure or markers of atherosclerosis disease following broccoli sprout consumption. The authors concluded that further research would be necessary to elucidate whether if broccoli sprouts have a positive effect on blood pressure, blood cholesterol and atherosclerosis. These results are in agreement with previously published clinical trials which have failed to show a positive effect for antioxidant supplementation on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
For further details on these studies:
Bahadoran Z, Mirmiran P, Hosseinpanah F, Hedayati M, Hosseinpour-Niazi S, Azizi F (2011) Broccoli sprouts reduce oxidative stress in type 2 diabetes: a randomized double-blind clinical trial. Eur J Clin Nutr
Wu L, Ashraf MHN, Facci M, Wang R, Paterson PG, Ferrie A, Juurlink BHJ (2004) Dietary approach to attenuate oxidative stress, hypertension, and inflammation in the cardiovascular system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (18):7094-7099. doi:10.1073/pnas.0402004101
Christiansen B, Bellostas Muguerza N, Petersen AM, Kveiborg B, Madsen CR, Thomas H, Ihlemann N, Sorensen JC, Kober L, Sorensen H, Torp-Pedersen C, Dominguez H (2010) Ingestion of Broccoli Sprouts Does Not Improve Endothelial Function in Humans with Hypertension. PLoS ONE 5 (8):e12461
