by Taylor Tibbs
As you listlessly push your grocery cart through the store’s produce section, careful not to stand too close to the cooling shelves for fear of an unsuspecting miniature monsoon from the misters, you see the wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors of the vegetables you could add to dinner this week. But this veggie variety is somewhat of an illusion.
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, and cauliflower actually share one common secret: all of them come from the same plant!
All of these veggies come from the plant Brassica oleracea, otherwise known as wild cabbage. Cabbage and kale are both the leaves of the plant, while Brussels sprouts are the buds, broccoli and cauliflower the flowers, and kohlrabi the roots. Centuries of selective breeding by humans have produced cultivars, or sub-varieties, of B. oleracea that are specialized in each of these main areas. There are varieties of B. oleracea, for example, that are good at producing larger flowers (broccoli) and others that are better at growing fuller, denser leaves (cabbage). The main difference between cabbage and kale is the density and thickness of their leaves. Cabbage leaves grow in dense bundles that curl into one another, while kale grows leaves that are more spaced out. Broccoli and cauliflower are just different colors/variations of the flower (green vs white).
Something else many of these vegetables have in common is their ability to turn up noses. The trademark stinky smell of cooked brussels, cabbage, and broccoli are due to sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates. While some people enjoy these vitamin-packed delicacies despite their unique stench, others are under the table trying to sneakily scrape them off their plate to the dog. This aversion for bitter-leafy greens is often due to a variation in the TAS2R38 gene, which causes those who have the variation to be sensitive to the bitter-tasting sulfur compound, phenylthiocarbamide (PTC).
B. oleracea isn’t just a rich reservoir of PTC. All of B. oleracea’s veggie derivatives are full of essential vitamins and antioxidants that make foods like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi healthy meal choices. One 2013 meta-analysis revealed that individuals who regularly ate cruciferous vegetables, aka vegetables belonging to the Brassicaceae family, had a significantly reduced risk of colorectal cancer.
Whether you prefer broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or none of these sulfur-rich and antioxidant-packed foods, you can thank B. oleracea and the creative strategies of our veggie-breeding ancestors for some of our produce diversity.
