According to the latest data from WHO, the number of obese people in the world has exceeded 1 billion. Currently known effective weight control method is to increase calorie consumption while controlling calorie intake. For people who lose weight, broccoli, Chinese kale and other foods have always been known as "fat-reducing artifacts" because of their low calories.

A study by Vanderbilt University in the United States showed that sulforaphane, a compound in cruciferous plants such as broccoli and kale, can significantly reduce the excess fat content of obese mice without causing muscle loss, and May improve blood sugar levels. The results of this study were published in the internationally renowned biological journal "Life" (eLife).

Experiments have found that by injecting sulforaphane (5mg/kg) once a day to obese mice, their body weight dropped by 14% after 2 weeks, and their food intake was reduced by 30%; Body weight was not affected, and food intake was not reduced in lean mice. In addition, the researchers found that injections of sulforaphane significantly improved fasting blood sugar levels in obese mice. Why do mice with different fat and thin have different responses to sulforaphane? After analysis, the researchers found that after eating sulforaphane, obese mice lost fat weight and did not cause muscle loss. In this regard, the researchers said, "sulforaphane requires excess fat to function." This process reduces fat in obese mice by reducing fatty acid (the building blocks of fat) synthesis. Because lean mice have low fat mass, sulforaphane was unable to work.

But sulforaphane also works in lean mice under certain conditions. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells that suppresses appetite. Obese people usually enter a state of leptin resistance, which makes people eat more and get fatter. Using sulforaphane alone could not reduce fat in lean mice, but when the researchers fed leptin and sulforaphane to lean mice at the same time, they found that the mice's food intake decreased and their body weight also decreased.

Overall, the study showed that sulforaphane significantly suppressed excess fat production without causing muscle loss in obese mice, while also significantly improving blood sugar levels. However, clinical studies have reported that the effect of sulforaphane on weight loss in humans is only one-tenth that of mice, but the effect of lowering blood sugar is still significant.

Therefore, fat-reducing people can still eat vegetables such as broccoli and kale as healthy fat-reducing foods, especially for people with high blood sugar. Looking forward to more research from the scientific community to further explore whether sulforaphane may be the "answer" for obese people.