Evidence Level
Sulforaphane research is grounded in Talalay and colleagues' foundational work at Johns Hopkins identifying it as a potent Nrf2 activator and cancer chemopreventive agent. Egner et al. (2014) published a landmark RCT demonstrating enhanced excretion of airborne carcinogens in a Chinese population. Axelsson et al. (2017) showed blood sugar benefits in a rigorous Science Translational Medicine publication. The key supplement formulation issue is myrosinase — without this enzyme, glucoraphanin conversion to active sulforaphane depends on highly variable gut bacteria. Products containing both glucoraphanin and myrosinase, or pre-formed stabilized sulforaphane, are preferred. Growing your own broccoli sprouts is also a cost-effective way to obtain sulforaphane.