produce a "better broccoli'' with many cancer-fighting compounds that wouldn't affect the taste of the already good-for-you vegetable. "If there was one vegetable to eat, you'd want it to be broccoli,'' said Barbara Klein, a researcher on the project. "It's high in vitamin C, it's high in beta-carotene, it's high in vitamin E, it's high in folate. And it has all these other non-vitamin compounds in it that are good for you. From my perspective George Bush had it all wrong.'' She was referring to the former president, who once complained about broccoli's taste and said it was his The search for a better breed of broccoli of types of broccoli with different tastes and a different grocer or producer of frozen foods may use another kind. "They're all in the same family, but they're like a bunch of cousins who don't look the same or taste the same,'' she said. The project Klein is working on revolves around compounds called glucosinolates. Research says these compounds can increase resistance to cancer, and they're found in the so-called cruciferous vegetables -- cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale and the most popular of the group, broccoli. But each of those different-tasting varieties of broccoli also has a different level of the cancer-fighting compounds. The University of Illinois researchers want to breed a broccoli plant with the best and most potent combination of these compounds. Someday they envision heads of broccoli at the grocery store being labeled "high in glucosinolates'' just as cookies are called "low-fat'' and cereals "high in fiber.'' But it's not just about breeding. The researchers have to worry about how the varieties taste and smell, how they hold up when frozen or cooked, and how they resist pests in the fields. "What I would love is if we could come up with something where we can identify strains that are potent enough that people could just eat broccoli or a related type of vegetable two or three servings a week. I think people would really do that,'' said Elizabeth Jeffery, an associate professor of nutrition. And she says many people could be helped by a modification in their diet -- more than would ever go to their doctor's office for a shot or drug treatment. While glucosinolates are the compounds researchers are interested in generally, they don't have much benefit on their own. But when the vegetable is cut up or chewed, an enzyme is released that turns them into products researchers believe can fight cancer two ways -- by detoxifying carcinogens and by suppressing the growth of existing cancerous tumors.

Jeffery said studies have shown as little as 10 grams of broccoli a day could have a small but significant effect on a person's risk of contracting cancer.

A serving is about 150 grams. Earlier studies showed that sulforaphane, a product of the glucosinolates, prompts the body to make an enzyme that prevents tumors from forming. In laboratory animals exposed to carcinogens, a 1994 study found cancer development was reduced by 60 percent to 80 percent when the animals were fed sulforaphane extracted from broccoli. As for the suppression of tumor growth, Jeffery is about to begin research involving laboratory mice injected with cancerous human cells to study that further.

Klein, a professor of foods and nutrition, is concentrating on preserving the taste of this "better broccoli'' the university researchers are trying to create. To do that, she is using a professional panel of tasters who rate different varieties of broccoli on taste qualities such as sweetness, earthiness and bitterness, and smell qualities such as how floral, hay-like and musty the vegetable is. Some of the other concerns for the project are determining how broccoli plants with high levels of cancer-fighting compounds would hold up in the fields. And researchers want to determine the best way to process, store and serve the vegetable to keep the maximum cancer-fighting potential. But while the researchers do their work, Klein has some advice: "My bottom line is eat your broccoli.''