• Home >
  • Eat Healthy >
  • Purple carrots and sweet broccoli hit the supermarkets

Purple carrots and sweet broccoli hit the supermarkets

Tuesday, 4 October 2011 2:09 PM

Want to put the fun back into your five a day? A new range of veg is on offer in Tesco and Marks & Spencer, including multi-coloured carrots, amazingly grown in Norfolk, and a super-broccoli that tastes sweeter and provides anti-cancer, heart-boosting properties.

The crunchy carrots grow in colours such as purple, yellow and amber.  They are grown naturally, cultivated from varieties that were thought to have gone out of fashion.

Tesco vegetable buyer Steve Williams said: "Some people who have tried them have said that the white and yellow ones are slightly sweeter than the orange variety and are also crunchier."

The Beneforté broccoli contains up to three times as much glucoraphanin – a compound found to have anti-cancer properties that is also good for the heart. A welcome side effect is a sweeter, less bitter, taste to the veg.

The John Innes Centre and Institute of Food Research in Norwich have spent 20 years researching unusual veg.

Dr Simon Coupe, M&S agronomist, said: "It takes a long programme of growing to bring these products to market and we’re proud to be able to be first to launch this product."

Potatoes top poll for UK's favourite veg

Potatoes still the nation's favourite vegetable

Boiled, mashed or chipped, we can't get enough of those lovely spuds. Versatile potatoes have topped poll to find the UK's favourite vegetable, while bananas were chosen as favourite fruit in a poll of 2,000 by tibits vegetarian restaurant.

 Up fruit intake for heart health

Eat five-a-day for optimum heart health

Eating lots of fruit and vegetables is great news for our hearts and general health and scientists have found that your five-a-day can even negate genetic risk factors. People who carry a certain gene have an increased risk of heart disease.
Healthy red sprouts from M&S

M&S launch red super sprouts for Christmas

Want to make Christmas dinner more interesting - and more healthy? M&S are bringing red 'super sprouts' to the UK high street for the first time. The additional colouring shows the additional health benefits of the vegetables.

 Another vegetable breakthrough from M&S

Marks & Spencer sells world's first seedless pepper

Marks & Spencer will be the first retailer to sell the world’s first seedless pepper - perfect for faddy eaters or to encourage kids to up their intake of colourful salad vegetables. The sweet seedless Angello pepper is also perfect for snacking.
Broccoli benefits best from wholefoods

Broccoli benefits 'best from wholefoods, not supplements'

When it comes to getting the maximum health benefit from vegetables, organic, steamed wholefoods are the way to go, particularly broccoli. Many vegetables containing key phytochemicals can boost your immune system, but you need to eat the real thing.

 Christmas range launches at Tesco

Christmas treats hit the supermarkets

Is it that time already? Mince pies, puddings, cakes, Yule logs hit the shops this week as Britain braces itself for another Christmas eating extravaganza. It is predicted we will eat more than one million mince pies by the end of December.
New broccoli breed from M&S

M&S launch white gold broccoli

They brought us the seedless pepper and the red super-sprout - now M&S boffins have come up with white gold broccoli, sweeter, more succulent than the green variety. Sounds ideal for a superfood Sunday lunch and encouraging kids to eat their greens.

 Fresh fruit and vegetables aren't expensive

Five portions of fruit and veg for just 42p

Struggling to get your five a day? Well, you can't blame rising food prices, as new research shows you can get five fresh portions of fruit and veg per day for just 42p. Research by World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) looked at British supermarkets.

Free Newsletter

Sign up to foodnotes.co.uk's free newsletter.

Subject to terms of use and privacy policy

Broccoli helps kill cancer cells

Broccoli helps kill cancer cells

We have long been told about the health benefits of superfoods but now Sulforaphane, one of the primary phytochemicals in broccoli has been proved to selectively target and kill prostate cancer cells, leaving normal prostate cells healthy and unaffected.

Over half of Brits want to shed 'at least a stone'

weight loss

The study commissioned by diet aid manufacturer Slimsticks, also discovered that a worrying one in five people have followed an ‘eating is cheating’ starvation diet and one in ten have tried a liquid diet.

Headlines