What exactly is kale?
Kale is a cruciferous vegetable and a variety of cabbage. It is cultivated in both northern and southern provinces along the coast of China.
What is the nutritional value of kale?
Nutritionally, kale, like other vegetables, contains vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and phytochemicals, and its energy is low, about 32 kcal/ 100g.
Every100g of kale contains about 3g of protein, which is twice that of protein in cabbage. It also contains about 4 grams of dietary fiber, which plays an important role in maintaining human intestinal health, regulating blood sugar and preventing type 2 diabetes, increasing satiety, regulating body weight and preventing lipid metabolism disorder.
Kale is rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, folic acid and other vitamins. For example, the content of vitamin C is 35.3 mg/100 g, which is higher than that of leek, spinach, lettuce and other vegetables.
Although its vitamin A content is not as high as that of carrots, it is still at a high level in vegetables. Vitamin A has a wide range of important physiological functions in human body, such as visual function, maintaining the integrity of skin and mucosa, maintaining and promoting immune function, promoting growth and maintaining reproductive function.
Kale also contains lutein and zeaxanthin, which are important pigments in kale.
Lutein is a carotenoid, which is the main component of human macular pigment and has the function of preventing macular degeneration. In nature, it is often combined with zeaxanthin, both of which have strong antioxidant capacity.
In addition, kale also contains many minerals, such as calcium, iron and potassium.
It can be seen that kale is low in energy but high in nutrition, which is also an important reason why it is widely respected by slimming people.
As a cruciferous plant, kale also contains glucosinolates (glucosinolates for short). The degradation substances of glucosinolates can inhibit cancer induced by various carcinogens. The American Council on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer lists eating more cruciferous vegetables as one of its important guidelines for preventing cancer.
What are the common ways to eat cabbage?
Make a salad: You can add lemon juice or salad dressing or other vegetables to make a salad.
Make a milkshake: tear off a handful of kale, then wash it and make a milkshake with fruits, other vegetables and yogurt.
Make soup, mix fried food or add it to pasta: of course, it can also be added to almost any cooked food.
Steam with water: add a little salt, pepper, or other seasonings such as red pepper.
Stir-fry: Add garlic and olive oil first, then add chicken, mushrooms or beans.
Baking: Mix the washed kale (except the stalk in the middle of the leaves) with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, then lay it flat (not overlapping) in a baking pan and bake it at 275℉ (equivalent to 135℃) for about 20 minutes until it becomes crisp. Be careful not to burn it.
(Image from the Internet)
Author: Liu Pingping, nutritionist &; Popular science author