The "Cruciform" Vegetables

I

imp

Senior Member
Why are broccoli and cauliflower classed as "cruciform"? Are there others? They are highly recommended as antioxidant. (If I search, I will use up my gigabyte allotment!). imp
 

Never heard them called this before, so inevitably I had to look it up. I knew it had to have something to do with a cross.

Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae). These vegetables are widely cultivated, with many genera, species, and cultivars being raised for food production such as cauliflower, cabbage, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts and similar green leaf vegetables. The family takes its alternate name (Cruciferae, New Latin for "cross-bearing") from the shape of their flowers, whose four petals resemble a cross.
Click to expand...

Unless we allow these plants to go to seed we don't usually notice the flowers

broccoli flower.JPG
 
And to think my wife, suffering only a 12th. grade education, told ME of cruciforms, though I had no idea what she meant! I still clung to the belief that the term adhered because of some particular healing trait possessed by them! imp
 

imp, you have to realise that women of our generation who had a 12th grade education were lucky. Most had to leave school at 14 or 15 and go to work. It didn't mean that they weren't very smart though.

All of my aunties could run rings around me at Scrabble.
 
That said... cruciferous vegetables are tasty... I understand they greatly contribute to colon health. They certainly cause flatulence.... that's for sure..
 
QuickSilver said:
That said... cruciferous vegetables are tasty... I understand they greatly contribute to colon health. They certainly cause flatulence.... that's for sure..
Click to expand...

As a young adult, having eaten only meager amounts of vegetables most of my life, and then when my Mother put them in front of me, admonishing me to EAT, a single Brussels sprout eaten would blow me up like a balloon!

Nowadays, eating a bunch of vegetables almost daily, great variety of them, I am hardly bothered at all. I believe our systems adjust, somehow. imp
 
Cruciferous vegetables are good for you except if you have a thyroid problem than stay away from them.
 
Dame Warrigal said:
imp, you have to realise that women of our generation who had a 12th grade education were lucky. Most had to leave school at 14 or 15 and go to work. It didn't mean that they weren't very smart though.

All of my aunties could run rings around me at Scrabble.
Click to expand...

I had to leave school at 15..I may not have the makings of a Brain surgeon, but I've done ok...I wish I could have been better educated but I never had the opportunity ..
 
Getting university degrees does not necessarily mean someone is 'educated', or even that intelligent. Some are merely trained puppets or robotic machines in human form. Nor does a university education necessary eliminate ignorance or narrow-mindedness.

Education can also come from life experience. A truly learned individual would never look down on anyone for having less formal education. Knowledge does not just come from books. And wisdom is something only the lucky achieve.

But getting back to brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower -- I do believe they are very healthy as well as tasty and if nicely cooked should not produce undesirable backfiring.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top