I was always told to “eat your vegetables”. I wanted to know if broccoli was better then carrots. Also if broccoli was better then carrot, I wanted to know exactly how much better. I wanted a number. If I could figure out which vegetables were better, I could eat less of them. I could also generate more health benefits from their consumption.
Vegetables provide dietary fibre, and nutrients. I’m not concerned about that here. For the most part, we seem to get enough micro/macro nutrients. We should probably eat more fibre, but I think it’s a minor benefit of vegetables. The fact that vegetables don’t provide many macronutrients and don’t spike blood sugar levels are probably significant benefits as well.
We can calculate the amount that different vegetables will initiate NRF2 stabilization (how good they are) by looking at the content of the phytochemicals/electrophiles. If you’re interested, you can read more about the structure here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gingerol. It’s the OH- part of the molecule that was the weak affinity for electrons and is responsible for the beneficial effects.
So, what I’ve done here is just compared the concentrations of electrophiles in different foods. Ginger and garlic are the clear winners.
Which Vegetables are Best?
Broccoli
The concentration of sulforaphane is approx 10 ug/ml of broccoli juice. This is 0.01mg/ml. 0.001%, or one part in 100,000.
http://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/48214.pdf
Hot peppers.
The amount of capsicum is related to the heat of the pepper.
http://www.sciencepub.net/newyork/ny0309/03_3176ny0309_17_21.pdf
The Zaria Tatase has a similar level of heat as Serrano peppers. They have a capsicum content of .1mg /g. This works out to 0.01% (One part per 10,000).https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale
Garlic
The content of alliciin is approx 10mg / g. This works out to 1%. So, it’s approx 10x as powerful as serano peppers, and 1,000x as powerful as broccoli.
http://www.allicinfacts.com/garlic_supplement/
Ginger
The phenol content of fresh ginger is approx 4-8% by dry weight. When you dry ginger, you remove approx 20% of the gingol, but you also reduce the weight by 4x. Fresh ginger is approx 80% water by weight. Dry ginger is 5% water by weight. This research paper puts the gingerol content of fresh ginger to be 1%.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235964820_Estimation_of_gingerol_content_in_different_brand_samples_of_ginger_powder_and_their_anti-oxidant_activity_A_comparative_study
Another research paper puts the gingerol content of dry ginger at 95mg/g. So or 9.5% by weight. If we estimate the content in fresh ginger, we arrive at approx 2%, or one part in 50. So, estimates range between 1-2%.
One part in 100,000 (broccoli) / one part in 50 (ginger) = 2,000.
So, ginger is approx 1,000 – 2,000x as powerful as broccoli. Also, it should be noted that broccoli is one of the best vegetables.
Serrano peppers are better the broccoli, but not as good as ginger or garlic. This finding fits with the idea that it’s the plants natural defence against mold that makes the vegetable healthy for us to eat. Hot peppers will go bad if left on the counter. But, ginger and garlic won’t. So, it kind of makes sense that they have more photochemicals because it’s the phytocemicals that protect them agains mold and bacteria.