Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Know Your Greens: Kale

Why eat kale?

Because it's off the charts in Vitamin A, C, and K.
Because it's the prettiest green you'll ever see.
Because it's also got moderate amounts of calcium, iron, potassium, copper, vitamin B6, and manganese.
Because it's got mad ruffles, but it's not all girlie.
Because 1 cup raw, chopped kale contains 121mg Omega-3 fatty acids and 92mg Omega-6 fatty acids.
Because it can put the green in your green drink or green smoothie.
Because it even has a little protein in there—1 cup raw contains 4% of the daily protein requirement.
Because it's got dietary fiber, and you know you need some of that.
Because it comes fresh out of the ground, and thus it can be called food (read In Defense of Food for more information on the difference between nutrients and food.)

For full nutritional details on kale go here.

Here's a chart that lays it all out for us, care of The World's Healthiest Foods.

2 comments:

Emily said...

So I'm trying to jump on this "eat only REAL food" bandwagon, slowly... So HOW do you eat kale? In smoothies, and how else? Salad? I'm clueless, obviously! :)

Please Pass the Green said...

Em, I'm so excited for you. Baby steps. I bet you're feeling overwhelmed. It really is hard to know how to eat all these REAL foods! I still don't know more than a few ways to eat kale, but I will look through my cookbooks to find some recipes to share.

I blend kale in my morning smoothies, steam kale, eat it raw in salads, and add it to my lentil soup recipe. Does anyone else have other unique ways to eat kale?