The superfood compound that beats back prediabetes

Close to 98 million adults in the United States are now living with prediabetes.

In other words, it would only take a tiny push for 34% of us to move into full-blown blood sugar problems that can damage our hearts, take down our kidneys and lead to serious brain problems.

The good news is that making simple changes like staying active, reducing stress, and adjusting your diet to include more low-carb options can make a significant impact on the prediabetes problem.

And it turns out there’s one more thing you can do that’s even easier…

It’s as simple as adding one specific superfood to your daily diet and letting its natural compounds work to balance your blood sugar.

Here are the details…

Lower fasting blood glucose

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have previously shown that a compound known as sulforaphane in broccoli works as an antidiabetic agent in people already living with type 2 diabetes.

However, sulforaphane had not yet been put to the test against prediabetes.

So the scientists got back to work following 89 people with elevated fasting blood sugar, an indicator of prediabetes. The participants were randomly assigned to take either sulforaphane or a placebo for twelve weeks.

And the results were clear…

Sulforaphane can take fasting blood sugar down!

In fact, the results showed that participants who took the broccoli superfood compound experienced a significantly higher than average reduction in fasting blood sugar than those taking the placebo.

The results were so impressive that the researchers even pointed out that the difference between those taking sulforaphane and those not was “considerable.”

Better and better blood sugar

The scientists also found that some people with prediabetes benefitted from sulforaphane at an even greater level.

Those with the most significant improvement after taking sulforaphane had low insulin resistance and secretion along with:

• Early signs of mild age-related diabetes
• A relatively low BMI in the context of the study
• A low incidence of fatty liver disease

The scientists even found why sulforaphane may be more impactful against blood sugar problems for some people…

In an additional stage of the research, they found differences in the gut microbiomes of those who responded well to sulforaphane compared to those who had a lesser response, indicating bacteria may interact with sulforaphane, improving the efficacy of the broccoli compound.

While more research may be needed to identify the microbiome differences, the researchers did find that the most profound responders may have had more butyrate-producing bacteria.

Butyrate is a fatty acid the gut creates when it digests certain foods. Previous research found that a decline butyrate may trigger insulin resistance. Butyrate also contributes to gut health.

Putting sulforaphane to work for you

“The treatment of prediabetes is currently lacking in many respects, but these new findings open the way for possible precision treatment using sulforaphane extracted from broccoli as a functional food. However, lifestyle factors remain the foundation of any treatment for prediabetes, including exercise, healthy eating, and weight loss,” says Professor Anders Rosengren.

“The results of the study also offer a general model of how pathophysiology and gut flora interact with and influence treatment responses. A model that could have broader implications.”

So, how can you use the results of this study to work?

The first is to eat more broccoli to get more sulforaphane in your diet.

Here’s the best way to eat broccoli in order to amplify the compound’s powers. (Hint: It’s not raw.)

Next, consider consuming more probiotics to support the healthy bacteria levels in your gut and, therefore, sulforaphane’s action.

You can get probiotics through dietary choices like yogurt, kefir and sauerkraut. But I also like to take a quality probiotic supplement to ensure optimal levels.

Sources:

Diabetes Statistics – NIH

Reduced prediabetes in people who ate broccoli compound – EurekAlert!