Why type 2 diabetics should eat broccoli

Type 2 dia­be­tes is beco­m­ing more com­mon around the world and not all pati­ents can be suc­cess­ful­ly trea­ted with exis­ting drugs. Axel­son et al. ana­ly­zed the gene expres­si­on pat­tern asso­cia­ted with type 2 dia­be­tes and com­pa­red it to the gene signa­tures for thousands of drug can­di­da­tes to find com­pounds that could coun­ter­act the effects of dia­be­tes. The lea­ding can­di­da­te from this ana­ly­sis was sul­fora­pha­ne, a natu­ral com­pound found in broc­co­li and other vegetables. 

The aut­hors show­ed that sul­fora­pha­ne inhi­bits glu­co­se pro­duc­tion in cul­tu­red cells and impro­ves glu­co­se tole­ran­ce in rodents on a high-fat or high-fruc­to­se diet. Addi­tio­nal­ly, in a cli­ni­cal stu­dy, broc­co­li sprout extract con­tai­ning sul­fora­pha­ne was well tole­ra­ted and impro­ved fas­ting glu­co­se levels in obese and dys­re­gu­la­ted type 2 dia­be­tic human patients.

Source

• Sul­fora­pha­ne redu­ces hepa­tic glu­co­se pro­duc­tion and impro­ves glu­co­se con­trol in pati­ents with type 2 dia­be­tes
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28615356/