Do you like kale?
I HATED it when I first adopted a plant-based diet. I can remember massaging it and massaging it some more before I could eat it. I never liked the kale chips that my sister seemed to enjoy so much. But then one day, I didn’t massage the kale as I was adding it to my salad. Then it led to the same the next day and the next. It is funny how quickly our tastes adjust to new things. Now the only thing I think is how nutritious it is while adding fresh kale to my huge salad. My favorite way to eat it is to steam a bag of chopped kale in a small amount of water with some mushrooms until it is nice and soft. I will top it with a small amount of not sauce, green goddess, or “non” blue cheese dressing. I think it is so DELICIOUS!
What are the benefits of kale?
In an article published by Dr. Michael Greger with Nutritionfacts.org, he stated,
“The effect of black and red cabbage on…oxidized [LDL].” And by black cabbage, they mean lacinato kale, also known as dinosaur or Tuscan kale. They had people eat a bag of frozen kale and cabbage a day for just two weeks—which is great because you can just keep it in the freezer, pre-washed, pre-chopped, and just throw it in any meal you are making—and got “significant reductions” of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and even blood sugar levels. And, the antioxidant capacity of their blood went up. So, no surprise, they demonstrated “a significant decrease” in oxidized LDL, too.
What is the best way to eat kale…do you have to consume it in a raw form?
In the same article mentioned above, Dr. Greger reported the following:
No. Some “cooking techniques may improve the…antioxidant activity in kale and red cabbage.” “The effects of the cooking process can be positive, since cooking softens the vegetable tissues,” helping your body extract the active compounds. “However, cooking can also be negative, because heat treatment can degrade [some of the] compounds. They looked at a variety of different cooking methods, and concluded “steaming [may] be considered to be the best home cooking technique to prepare kale and red cabbage.” But with foods that healthy, the truly best way to prepare them is whatever way will get you to eat the most of them.
Now we know why we should eat our greens!
Link to Dr. Greger’s article: The Benefits of Kale and Cabbage for Cholesterol
