Eating broccoli three or four times a week can act as a safeguard against cancer because of health-boosting compounds in the vegetable - according to experts.
Researchers from the University of Illinois have identified that broccoli includes phenolic compounds, which are associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and asthma.
But the experts from the US said eating broccoli or other types of Brassica vegetable every three or four days can lower the risk of cancer and other degenerative diseases.
Jack Juvik, University of Illinois geneticist, said: "Phenolic compounds have good antioxidant activity, and there is increasing evidence that this antioxidant activity affects biochemical pathways affiliated with inflammation in mammals.
"We need inflammation because it's a response to disease or damage, but it's also associated with initiation of a number of degenerative diseases.
People whose diets consist of a certain level of these compounds will have a lesser risk of contracting these diseases."
The researchers crossed two broccoli lines and tested their progeny in terms of total phenolic content and their ability to neutralise oxygen radicals in cellular assays.
They then used a genetic technique called quantitative trait locus analysis to search for the genes involved in generating phenolics in the most promising progeny.
By identifying the genes involved in accumulating these compounds, the researchers said it could be possible to breed broccoli and related Brassica vegetables like kale and cabbage with mega-doses of phenolic compounds.
Jack Juvik added: "It's going to take a while.
"This work is a step in that direction, but is not the final answer.
"We plan to take the candidate genes we identified here and use them in a breeding program to improve the health benefits of these vegetables.
"Meanwhile, we'll have to make sure yield, appearance, and taste are maintained as well."
Experts have also found the phenolic compounds are flavourless and stable, meaning the vegetables can be cooked as usual without losing health-promoting qualities.
Once these vegetables are consumed, the phenolic compounds are absorbed and targeted to certain areas of the body or concentrated in the liver.
Flavonoids spread through the bloodstream, reducing inflammation through their antioxidant activity.
"These are things we can't make ourselves, so we have to get them from our diets," said Jack.
"The compounds don't stick around forever, so we need to eat broccoli or some other Brassica vegetable every three or four days to lower the risk of cancers and other degenerative diseases."
Broccoli has soared in popularity recently, after scientists showed the vegetable can also protect against the the development of fatty liver or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) which can cause malfunction of the liver and lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a liver cancer with a high mortality rate.
Professor Elizabeth Jeffery, of Illinois University in the United States, said: "We decided that liver cancer needed to be studied particularly because of the obesity epidemic.
"It is already in the literature that obesity enhances the risk for liver cancer and this is particularly true for men. They have almost a five-fold greater risk for liver cancer if they are obese."
Professor Jeffery said eating a high-fat, high-sugar diet and having excess body fat is linked with the development of NAFLD, which can lead to diseases such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.
She said: "We called this a Westernised-style diet in the study because we wanted to model how so many of us are eating today."
Previous research suggests that broccoli, a brassica vegetable containing bioactive compounds, may impede the accumulation of fat in the liver and protect against NAFLD in mice.
Other brassica vegetables - such as cauliflower, brussel sprouts and turnips might have the same effect as broccoli.
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