🥦 This year I managed to grow a crop of purple sprouting broccoli (PSB)!

It was a total delight to enjoy this homegrown vegetable with an array of vitamins, minerals and  phytochemicals.

🥦 Some notable nutrient values are displayed in the infographic. A great source of vitamin C and folate. In general, most green leafy vegetables are a good source of folate. Notably, folate is involved in the making of new blood

cells and DNA replication, important for our energy making processes and correct repair as we age. It is also essential for the correct production of neurotransmitters which have diverse actions but include: regulating mood, sleep, motivation, and cognition. It seems Grandma was right when she said to eat your greens!

 🥦 Do you know what makes PSB purple though? This is where phytochemicals come in. Anthocyanins are a type of phytochemical (in the class of flavonoids) which are responsible for the red, purple and blue colours of fruits and vegetables. For example, berries, blackcurrants, grapes, purple sweet potato. The purple chemicals are particularly supportive to our cardiovascular system and microcirculation - the smaller capillary networks such as those in our eyes and brain. Read on to find out more!

🥦 While we have government recommended daily allowences (RDAs) for vitamin and minerals (a necessity to avoid pathology/disease), we don't yet have recommendations for phytochemicals, other than the all inclusive 'five a day'. While not vital to life (or at least not currently considered in that way) phytochemicals maintain vitality and can help to prevent disease, with their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions. Phytochemcials are the antidotes to oxidants and inflammation. We naturally create oxidants when respiring but

our lifestyles add many more for our body to deal with. whic damage our tissues while dis-ease and degereation thrvies in an inflammatory environment. Inflammation is a necessary response to infection and mechanisms such as blood clotting - but in excess and by eating a highly inflammatory diet ('ultra-processed' is a current buzz word), it can become pathological, hence I like to think of phytochemicals as keeping us vital.

🥦 I am sure preventative medicine will gain traction and our governments will set out recommended amounts but for now, why not eat the rainbow as different coloured veggies contain different chemicals and actions that are still being discovered! And, why not try to be a little more like our healthy mediterraean friends by aiming for 12 a day? That in itself is a long topic, based around soil quality and poor farming methods but we will save that for another day 💜