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Our Story
How did our super-broccoli come to be?
It all started 40 years ago, on a Sicillian hillside...
1983
A New Discovery
Our Lead Scientist Professor Richard Mithen discovered a new variety of broccoli growing wild in Sicily. It was bitter and inedible, but contained a secret…
Compared with traditional varieties, this wild broccoli contained much more glucoraphanin – a natural molecule which scientists were investigating for its potential health benefits.
1993
A Star is Born
Prof. Mithen worked with two of the UK’s world-leading biological science research institutes (The Quadram Institute and The John Innes Centre) to create a new hybrid super-broccoli.
After more than a decade in the greenhouse using traditional cross-breeding techniques, he succeeded in creating a new variety of super-broccoli that looked and tasted like the standard broccoli we’re all used to, but contained much higher levels of glucoraphanin.
1994-2008
The Hard Yards
Back in the 90s, everybody knew that broccoli was really good for you. Eating a lot of it seemed to help protect people from chronic disease – but no-one really knew why.
So Prof. Mithen spent the next 15 years studying how and why broccoli seems to be so good for our health. His research revealed that sulforaphane (the active form of glucoraphanin) was the key to broccoli’s health effects.
It turned out that sulforaphane switches on our body’s natural antioxidant defences. This soothes inflammation and ‘re-tunes’ our metabolism, helping to reverse the inevitable harm caused by the natural ageing process.
2008-2018
Clinical Trials
With a mountain of evidence growing by the day, Prof. Mithen and his team decided to start doing human studies using their super-broccoli.
Over the following decade, Prof. Mithen led multiple human clinical trials into the potential health benefits of his super-broccoli – particularly for men with prostate cancer.
His research reported that eating a bowl of super-broccoli soup once a week could reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer, and might even slow cancer growth. It also appeared to cause people’s blood sugar levels to drop down to healthier levels too.
2020
SmarterNaturally
With such positive results, we created SmarterNaturally to bring the power of our super-broccoli to those people who need it.
We started off by launching our flagship SuperSoup, based off the version used in Prof. Mithen’s clinical trials.
Since then we’ve had a raft of customers reporting lower blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol and weight loss via our citizen science programme – a great encouragement that our super-broccoli works outside of the lab in the real world too!
Now
The Future is Green
Today, there are more than 3,000 published research papers exploring the health benefits of glucoraphanin and sulforaphane. But more evidence is always a good thing.
That’s why we’re already planning more clinical and community trials to expand and explore our understanding of how our super-broccoli could support people with conditions like high blood sugar, heart disease, arthritis and cancer.
We’re also starting studies to explore how it might offer support to people looking to lose weight and to athletes searching for a performance edge.
And we’re looking closely at research which suggests it could boost women’s health by ameliorating PCOS & endometriosis, boosting fertility, supporting healthy pregnancy and easing the symptoms of menopause.
40 Years.
8,000+ Studies.
One Conclusion.
Unlock a healthier future with our super-broccoli
We’re not just about doing science for science sake.
That’s why we’ve turned Prof. Mithen’s super-broccoli into convenient, tasty functional foods that deliver real health benefits.
In fact, they’re so powerful you only need to eat one portion a week to have a meaningful impact on your body’s internal balance.
So whatever your health goals, give your body the boost it needs today, and take the first step towards a healthier future.
Want to know more?
Dive even deeper into the science behind our super-broccoli and the story of how it came to be with our exclusive webinar. Featuring our Lead Scientist Prof. Richard Mithen & hosted by our CEO Laura Knight.
