Supplement companies hate this one trick. Broccoli sprouts. I’m obsessed with Nomio, which is broccoli sprouts in a shot, and it works better than bicarb for me. It is like fucking magic. This is not an ad. I’m just blown away by how well it works, so let me explain what it actually is, because it sounds insane.
It’s broccoli
Nomio is a 60ml shot. 80 percent broccoli sprout juice, 15 percent lemon, 5 percent sugar. That’s the whole label. The stuff doing the work is isothiocyanates, which is the family sulforaphane belongs to, and broccoli sprouts have more of them than anything else you can eat. One shot has as much as more than half a pack of sprouts, which is the equivalent of about 3kg of broccoli.
It came out of research at Karolinska Institutet and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences. They had endurance athletes take it for a week and measured roughly 12 percent less blood lactate during exercise and about 13 percent lower oxidative stress markers, with better training adaptation on top. Pro cyclists started drinking it, then everyone did.
Why I say it beats bicarb
Sodium bicarbonate is the classic thing you take so your legs stop burning at the end of hard reps. It works. It also has a reputation for wrecking your stomach, and if you’ve ever tried it before a track workout you know exactly what I mean. Nomio is chasing the same outcome, less lactate piling up during hard efforts, and I get there without the gamble. Same feeling at rep 8 of 10, minus the bathroom.
How I take it
One shot about 3 hours before a hard workout, which is what the box says. I also take one before bed whenever I feel extra sore, because it very noticeably helps me recover, and that lets me push harder in training. [FILL: what you noticed the first week.]
Okay, so what is sulforaphane
Broccoli, and especially broccoli sprouts, hold a compound called glucoraphanin. When you chew or blend them, an enzyme called myrosinase turns it into sulforaphane. Sulforaphane switches on a pathway in your cells called Nrf2, which turns up your own antioxidant and detox enzymes. That’s the mechanism everyone is excited about.
What the human research actually shows, honestly:
- Oxidative stress and inflammation. A bunch of small trials show lower markers after a few weeks of sulforaphane or sprout supplements, including in people doing hard exercise. One pilot study found less muscle soreness and lower muscle damage markers two days after eccentric exercise. Another trial found no difference in recovery. So, mixed, but leaning my way.
- Metabolic stuff. A trial in type 2 diabetes saw better insulin resistance markers with sprout powder. Meta-analyses of sprout studies show modest improvements in some cardiometabolic numbers, with a lot of variation in dose and quality.
- Cancer. This is where my sprout phase came from. The lab and animal data are strong. The human data are mostly people who eat more cruciferous vegetables get less of certain cancers, plus some early trials. It is not proven that a box of sprouts prevents cancer. It is also very clearly not bad for you.
- Airways. One well designed trial in healthy people found sprout homogenate did nothing for airway inflammation. It isn’t magic for everything. It is magic for my track workouts.
Real mechanism, real short term effects on the markers, promising for people training hard, oversold for everything else.
My broccoli sprout phase
Two years ago I was sure broccoli sprouts were going to keep me from getting cancer, so I had a phase. Sprouts on everything. Three day old sprouts have 10 to 100 times the glucoraphanin of a head of broccoli, which is the number from the Johns Hopkins lab that started all of this, and once you know that it’s hard to unknow it.
The store wanted 8 dollars a box. So I grew them. Growing them is still not cheap once you buy good seed, and it’s a pain. Rinse twice a day, keep them from going slimy, eat them before they turn. I did it for a while and then I stopped, like everyone.
Here’s where I’ve landed. 8 dollars a box is about one coffee a day in New York. Nomio is in the same ballpark per shot. I spend that without thinking on something that does less for me. Might as well have it be broccoli. And when I’m waiting on a Feed order to restock, I eat an entire pack of sprouts with dinner. This is not a skit, this is just how I eat dinner.
Who this is for
If you’re doing hard workouts twice a week and racing, and you’ve either tried bicarb and hated it or never wanted to, try Nomio for a couple of weeks and watch your reps. If you’re running easy miles and want the general sulforaphane stuff, eat the sprouts, or take a glucoraphanin supplement with myrosinase in it, and don’t overthink it. If you’re not already on caffeine and a real gel plan, do that first. This is the next thing.
Receipts
- Nomio’s own science page and The Feed’s write-up on the Karolinska trial.
- A skeptical look at the broccoli-shot evidence, which is fair.
- Sulforaphane, muscle soreness and eccentric exercise, pilot study and a trial that found no recovery benefit.
- The Johns Hopkins finding on sprouts versus mature broccoli.
- The airway trial that came back negative, and a review of what Nrf2 activators can and can’t do.
What I wore
| Brand | Piece | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nomio | Broccoli sprout shot, 60ml | before hard workouts |
All my measurements and every size I wear are on the sizing page.
Questions I get
What is Nomio?
A 60ml shot that's 80 percent broccoli sprout juice, with lemon and a little sugar. The active stuff is isothiocyanates, the family sulforaphane belongs to. It came out of research at Karolinska in Sweden.
Is Nomio better than sodium bicarbonate?
For me, yes. Bicarb works but it's a stomach gamble. Nomio's trial showed about 12 percent less blood lactate during exercise and I can take it without planning my day around a bathroom.
Are broccoli sprouts worth it?
They're 10 to 100 times higher in glucoraphanin than grown broccoli. The store charges 8 dollars a box and growing them is a pain. It's about one coffee a day. I'd rather it be sprouts.
