Why Kale is Super food No. 1?
An Antioxidant Superstar
Curly this is a nutritional powerhouse packed with
antioxidants such as vitamin C, beta-carotene, kaempferol and quercetin. As a
result of its high antioxidant content, this is one of the vegetables with the
highest ORAC rating. Only a handful of vegetables – including raw garlic, red
cabbage, sweet potatoes, Savoy cabbage, beet greens and arugula – have been
reported to have a higher ORAC rating than kale.
ORAC, which stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity,
measures foods' ability to scavenge free radicals. Free radicals are unstable
molecules that can cause damage to your body at the cellular level. The
cellular damage caused by free radicals has been implicated in the pathogenesis
of several diseases and disorders, including macular degeneration of the eye,
cardiovascular diseases, thrombosis, asthma, an impaired immune system,
atherosclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
In addition to providing pure health benefits, s
antioxidants can also provide beauty benefits. The free radical neutralizing
effects of the antioxidants in that can help keep your skin looking great by
preventing loss of skin elasticity triggered by excessive ultraviolet radiation.
When your skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, it forms
metalloproteinase’s. Metalloproteinase’s are enzymes that help repair
sun-injured connective tissue. However, not all metalloproteinase’s are
beneficial: some Metalloproteinase’s destroy collagen, which can lead to
wrinkles and fine lines on the skin. Free radicals seem to support the
production of these collagen-damaging metalloproteinase’s.
Impressive Anti-Cancer Effects
In addition to providing a truckload of vitamins and flavonoids, it contains several glucosinolates including glucobrassicin, glucoraphanin
and sinigrin. When you eat that, these compounds are converted into
isothiocyanates in your digestive tract. A large body of evidence suggests that
isothiocyanates may help prevent cancer and, in some cases, even suppress the
growth of cancerous tumors. Isothiocyanates work their anti-cancer magic by
eliminating potential carcinogens from the body, by conferring protection
against DNA damage, and by stimulating apoptosis (self-destruction) of
cancerous cells.
Most of the research related to isothiocyanates, kale and
cancer has focused on colon cancer and breast cancer, but there's also evidence
that food and other foods that contain glucosinolates may also provide
protection against prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and bladder cancer.
Promotes Urinary Health
If all the above-listed positive effects associated with
eating it are enough to convince you to eat more of this super food, consider
this: the potential health benefits also include enhanced urinary
health, which may extend well beyond protection against bladder cancer. This is
listed as one of the best foods to fight UTIs due to its extraordinary
nutritional profile. It chock-full of pro-vitamin A (it contains almost
as much pro-vitamin A as carrots), and pro-vitamin A is known to promote
healthy surface linings of the urinary tracts.
A 2007 study published in Pediatrics International, a
renowned scientific journal, investigated the effect of vitamin A on recurrent
UTIs (urinary tract infections). The researchers gave 12 volunteers with
recurrent UTIs vitamin A supplementation, in addition to antimicrobial
treatment. The control group, also consisting of 12 volunteers, were given a
placebo. During the first 6 months of the study, the infection rate of the
group who took the vitamin A supplement dropped from 3.6 to 0.8, while the
infection rate stayed at 2.8 in the control group.
Furthermore, it has low in oxalates, which offers
additional health benefits for people who suffer from certain types of
hyperoxaluria (excessive urinary excretion of oxalate) and to people who are
prone to developing calcium-oxalate kidney stones. Oxalates are
naturally-occurring substances present in significant amounts in many green leafy vegetables such as spinach, pursuance and parsley. The link between foods
rich in oxalates and kidney stones has caused quite some debate over the
purported health benefits of green smoothies (see Oxalates in Green Smoothies),
and if you have reason to be concerned about oxalates in your diet, using it
(instead of spinach) in your green smoothies may be the way to go.
Tips for Maximizing It's Health Benefits
Hopefully you're convinced of the nutritional value of this
by now, and the next step is to add more kale to your diet. Here are a few
interesting facts about kale and tips on how you can maximize the health benefits of it in your dishes:
This is also known as borecole and cow cabbage, so if you
cannot find it in your local supermarket right away, you may want to check if
borecole or cow cabbage is available. In the scientific community, this is
known as Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala.
Different varieties of this are available. These include
dinosaur kale (also called black cabbage and cavolo nero), curly kale (Scots
kale), and Red Russian kale.
It has an ORAC rating of 1,770. The ORAC rating of a food
gives an indication of the food's antioxidant capacity. For the sake of
comparison, raw spinach has an ORAC rating of 1,515, cauliflower has an ORAC of
839 and celery has an ORAC of 497.
Good substitutes for it in recipes include: rapine,
collard greens, Swiss chard, mustard greens, napa cabbage, kohlrabi leaves and
spinach.
Young leaves of this green leafy vegetable can be eaten raw,
for example in salads.
An easy recipe to transform kale into a healthy warm dish:
Sauté kale on a pan and mix it with chopped onions, crushed garlic and a
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
When it cooked, it loses a significant proportion of
its vitamin C and polyphone content. However, cooking does not have a
significant impact on the beta-carotene content of it.
Source: healwithfood.org
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