3 reasons to love broccoli
There are three great reasons why you should be eating broccoli (and other cruciferous veg) in peri/post menopause.
Gut bacteria
Helps you keep testosterone
Blunts the negative effects of estrone (a type of estrogen)
Get those cruciferous vegetables in (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sprouts, kale (bleugh), pak choi). They are very important for everyone and for specific reasons when you’re peri or post menopausal.
Gut bacteria
Everyone’s heard that your gut bacteria are part of good all-round health. Your gut “talks” to your brain and has a direct effect on all sorts of bodily processes. We know that eating fruit and veg (not just cruciferous) increases the diversity of your gut bacteria and within that it’s also increasing the bacteria that uses estrone (a type of estrogen produced) as a fuel source. If we have less estrone then we have less cell proliferation - and a reduced risk of cancer.
Helps you keep your testosterone
Testosterone decreases with age (for both men and women). It’s not part of menopause as it doesn’t drop off a cliff like estrogen and progesterone do. It’s more a gradual decline separate to that which is just age. However, we still need testosterone.
In menopausal women the body has lost estradiol (estrogen) and keeps “looking” for it. Testosterone can be converted by the body into estradiol. That might sound good but you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. Your body needs the testosterone so you want to try and keep as much of it as possible.
Eating broccoli can help. Cruciferous veg contain indole-3-carbinol which converts to diindolylmethane (DIM). It blocks the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol so you keep more of the testosterone.
Blunts the negative side of estrone
Estrone is a weaker type of estrogen the body produces and keeps producing before/after menopause. It can be metabolised down into various components. Two of these are 16a-Hydroxyestrone and 2-Hydroxyestrone. The 16a one becomes the body’s preferred pathway because it can possibly be converted again into estriol (another estrogen). The body is constantly looking out for estrogen (we lose estradiol aka E2 with menopause but not the other estrogens) and will favour trying to convert more of it.
However, we don’t want the 16a! It can lead to inflammation, excess omega-6, hypothyroidism and cell proliferation (ie increase in cancer risk).
Instead we want to get the body to convert estrone to 2-Hydroxyestrone which blocks cell proliferation. How do we do that? Eat broccoli! It encourages the body to metabolise estrone down the 2 pathway and not the 16a one.
In short
Research carried out in this area showed you needed to eat quite a lot of veg to get the effect - at two meals a day. That’s quite a challenge! You can buy supplements of DIM (basically concentrated broccoli) which makes it a little less chewy.
Diagram courtesy of Dr S Sims