Translator: Rhonda Jacobs
Reviewer: Nada Qanbar So, I am a father
of five beautiful children. And every night
that I am telling them stories and they're telling me stories,
I have to say, my heart swells. And I get this 'papa bear' instinct
where I want to wrap my arms around them and just keep them safe. But I'm seeing in today's day and age
that's becoming harder and harder. My primary job is to evaluate
medical scientific literature, and instruct physicians
on nutritional biochemistry. And what I'm seeing in that data
is a little disconcerting. Take air pollution for example. The medical journal, Lancet,
just this month told us that air pollution is upgraded
to a Grade 1 carcinogen. What does this mean? This means the particulate
that's coming up from fossil fuels, diesel exhaust, is getting into our cells, into our bodies, irritating our cells, changing their shape and behavior
to make them cancerous. And all these reports
we're hearing from Beijing of this terrible air pollution
that you're hoping stays in China, doesn't stay there. NASA has been tracking a phenomena
called 'the brown cloud.' Those pollutants get up in the jet stream
and within seven days time deposit themselves on the Western seaboard
of the United States, on my children's home. If that's not enough,
look at some of the data on pesticides. There are hundreds of millions
of pounds of these substances applied on planet Earth every single year. Some of these are known neurotoxins. And we're seeing them in the umbilical
cord blood of unborn children. As the levels of these chemicals go up,
the IQ scores go down. So, I literally leave my office some days, I'll go outside, and I'll look up at the sky and I'll say, "Oh my gosh, isn't there somebody
out there who can help us?" As if I'm half expecting Superman
to swoop down and (blows) blow away all the air
pollution and pesticides. But thankfully,
when I run back to my office and I get on the phone
with world-renowned researchers, and I read thousands of papers, I see hope in desperation. I see we have superheroes
right here, right now. And some of them are in your fridge. You might have even had them
last night for dinner. (Laughter) It turns out that super broccoli
can do amazing things. And broccoli has a chemical
in it called sulforaphane, and this chemical will get into each
and every one of your cells, and whisper to your DNA. You see, the biohazards
that come in through pollution will get into your cells
and irritate them. And sulforaphane
from broccoli will migrate in, (Laughter) seep into your cells, bind to a substance in your cells that releases a magical
DNA-reading compound called Nrf2. This whispers to your DNA and it says, "Hey, you can do more. You can be more!" (Laughter) And next thing you know,
you start producing antioxidant proteins that combat all these biohazards. At the same time, you start
producing detoxification proteins that shuttle these biohazards
out of your cells. In essence, what you're left with
is increased cellular function. Because sulforaphane
was ultimately discovered by researchers
at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Talalay and Dr. Kang, who were looking for the most
ultimate substance on the planet to combat cancer. And we're seeing in the presence
of the consumption of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables
like cauliflour, kale, Brussels sprouts, that you protect yourself
from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, lung cancer, breast cancer,
stomach cancer, colorectal cancer. You'll see the numbers
of colorectal cancer go down as you increase your servings
of cruciferous vegetables. It turns out that this
whispering to your DNA is the ultimate antioxidant. Look, you know what a whisperer is, right? Horse whisperer, dog whisperer,
you've seen those on TV. These are people who know you
better than you know you. (Laughter) You're in somebody's presence
who's a whisperer, you look into their eyes,
and all of the sudden you feel taller, you feel stronger, you feel like you can do more,
you can be more! So, that's why we call
broccoli a superhero. (Laughter) The DNA Whisperer, Superhero. (Laughter) And it looks like, of course,
he has plenty of friends. We've got the cauliflour, kale,
Brussels sprouts, arugula, and even cress. This little bitter cress
you see on the screen, grows across the United States
and people consider this a weed! It's not a weed! It's a DNA Whisperer! Pick it out of your garden,
put it in your salad, eat it, and protect yourself. You know, the average person
will look at this and say, ew, it's time for Roundup. No, don't spray Roundup,
round it up and eat the stuff. It's fantastic! As an aside, you know,
when I'm digging into the research I find more and more hope, right? There's a group in Idaho who started
something called the Mustard Project. They're actually using
the family of vegetables, the mustard family of vegetables,
concentrating sulfur compounds, and making incredible
non-toxic herbicides. They're also taking some of the oils
and spraying it on the fields and protecting from insects. But wait a second. They found a use for the additional oil
from the extractive process? They're turning those into bio-fuels! They're working on some of the cleanest
jet fuel on the planet now, being derived from canola oil,
that's from the mustard family. So, this family
of vegetables can do what? It can ramp up our DNA
and protect our cells? Yeah. Those Johns Hopkins researchers,
they went over to China and they gave sulphoraphane-rich beverages to people who were
exposed to air pollution. And they found that those toxins
that they were breathing in were found more in the urine
after they consumed more sulforaphane. They found rats exposed to pesticides; if you give them sulforaphane,
it protects them from damage. So, wait a second, we can protect
ourselves from damage and at the same time we can
lower our chemical exposure all from a single family of vegetables? Now, if that's not
the definition of a superhero, I don't know what is. (Laughter) And it looks like it's time
to bring these to the limelight, folks. Stop putting this
as a side dish in a deli case. Everybody's mother,
brother, sister is eating kale, but come on, broccoli,
it's 100 per cent less trendy than kale. (Laughter) Thanks to the ad company Victors & Spoils
out of Boulder, Colorado, we're actually able to approach
more people with this message. They're hitting the male population,
one of the hardest to budge on anything, and they're saying, "Look, broccoli,
it's the alpha-vegetable!" "Broccoli goes great
with a side of steak!" My favorite? "Had a hard day at the steel mill? Have a broquet and man up!" (Laughter) (Applause) [SHOW A BRO YOU CARE. THE BROQUET] But really, we've got to get
our kids started early. We've got to get them accustomed
to that baby diaper smell. Enough of this, "Ew, gross!" Enough of this, "Do I have to eat it?" We've got to get them started
when they're young, and this is what you do,
this is the secret. High-powered blender,
lots of freshly-picked fruit; blueberries, strawberries,
raspberries, some citrus, because lemon and orange
hide the sulfur-y flavor. One leaf at a time, one leaf at a time, blend it up (Buzz);
(Whispers) they hardly notice. And then a week later, two more leaves, and then a week later... and within a couple of months... this is what it looks like. And you've got smiling kids who
are addicted to sulfur-based compounds, (Whispering) and they didn't even
know what hit them. (Laughter) (Applause) But don't stop there! It turns out that broccoli
plays well with others. Johanna Lampe at University of Washington,
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, she's saying, "Come on, eat these! They increase the beneficial
cancer-protective effect with the broccoli." So, have a platter, for goodness sake.
Eat them up; they're delicious. And when you do, don't do it out of fear. There are so many people out there saying,
"I can't eat cruciferous vegetables, I'm going to get thyroid disease." And I would say, question
where that information came from. Because I've talked to world-renowned
authors and researchers and they all say the same thing. You're going to have to eat
multiple pounds of raw, cruciferous vegetables a day, you're going to have to have
an iodine insufficiency and thyroid problems to begin with
before this is even a concern. So, eat it up! And when you do, it should look like this,
if you're going to cook it, okay? It should look like this, right? Not like this. (Laughter) It should look like this. Oops! Because this is two minutes
in a steamer basket. Lightly steamed, still crunchy, delicious. This is what you get at a cafeteria. This is how grandma used to cook it. This is seven minutes, boiled,
left on a countertop. I can guarantee you, you're going to get
less DNA whispering from this. So, ultimately, I am here by choice, because I would like a better future
for my children and your children. And I think we can get there
when we recognize the genius of life. What makes us tick? The genius of food. How incredibly complex and beautiful
all of this natural process is. You know, broccoli can change you. And it turns out the broccoli family
can change our planet. But I'm talking about
one family of vegetables, I'm talking about one chemical today. There are tens of thousands of chemicals
that have been discovered in the last few decades. So, I want you to leave today
remembering a few things, one of which is, be kind to your broccoli,
and your broccoli will be kind to you. The other thing is, if broccoli
can do all these amazing things, what can blueberries do? (Laughter) Thank you. (Applause)
Legit a good vid on the health benefits of Broccoli, check it out.