Veggie Of the Month

What's Beneficial About Kale

While not as well researched as some of its fellow cruciferous vegetables like broccoli or cabbage, kale is a food that you can count on for some unsurpassed health benefits, if for no other reason than its exceptional nutrient richness.



Description
Kale is a leafy green vegetable that belongs to the Brassica family, a group of vegetables including cabbage, collards, and Brussels sprouts that have gained recent widespread attention due to their health-promoting, sulfur-containing phytonutrients.



The beautiful leaves of the kale plant provide an earthy flavor and more nutritional value for fewer calories than almost any other food around. Dinosaur kale is the common name for the kale variety known as Lacinato or Tuscan kale. It features dark blue-green leaves that have an embossed texture. It has a slightly sweeter and more delicate taste than curly kale.




Although it can be found in markets throughout the year, it is in season from the middle of winter through the beginning of spring when it has a sweeter taste and is more widely available.



How to Select and Store
Look for kale with firm, deeply colored leaves and moist hardy stems. Kale should be displayed in a cool environment since warm temperatures will cause it to wilt and will negatively affect its flavor. The leaves should look fresh, be unwilted, and be free from signs of browning, yellowing, and small holes.



Choose kale with smaller-sized leaves since these will be tenderer and have a milder flavor than those with larger leaves.



To store, place kale in a plastic storage bag removing as much of the air from the bag as possible. Store in the refrigerator where it will keep for 5 days. The longer it is stored, the more bitter its flavor becomes. Do not wash kale before storing because exposure to water encourages spoilage.



Antioxidant-Related Health Benefits
Kale's nutrient richness stands out in three particular areas-(1) antioxidant nutrients, (2) anti-inflammatory nutrients, and (3) anti-cancer nutrients in the form of glucosinolates.



Without sufficient intake of antioxidants, our oxygen metabolism becomes compromised and we experience "oxidative stress." Without the sufficient intake of anti-inflammatory nutrients, our inflammatory system can become compromised, and we can experience the problem of chronic inflammation. Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation - and the combination of these metabolic problems-are risk factors for development of cancer.



Kale's cancer preventive benefits have been clearly linked to its unusual concentration of two types of antioxidants, namely, carotenoids and flavonoids. Within the carotenoids, lutein and beta-carotene are standout antioxidants in kale. Lutein and beta-carotene are key nutrients in the protection of our body from oxidative stress and the health problems related to oxidative stress like increased risk of cataracts, atherosclerosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.



At least 45 different antioxidant flavonoids are provided in measurable amounts by kale. This broad spectrum of flavonoid antioxidants is likely to be a key to kale's cancer-preventive benefits and benefits.



On top of all that kale also has some omega-3, which is an important part of kale's anti-inflammatory benefits. It only takes 100 calories of kale to provide us with 25-35% of the National Academy of Sciences' public health recommendation for the most basic omega-3 fatty acid (alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA).



We also know that kale is a spectacular source of vitamin K and that vitamin K is a key nutrient for helping regulate our body's inflammatory process.



Cancer-Preventive Benefits
Kale's risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer. These types include cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate.



Cardiovascular Support
Kale has some special cholesterol-lowering benefits. The fiber in kale binds together with the acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability - just not as much.



Detoxification
Kale is also recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system.



Tips for Preparing Kale
Rinse kale leaves under cold running water. Chop leaf portion into ½" slices and the stems into 1/4 " lengths for quick and even cooking.


To get the most health benefits from kale, let sit for a minimum of 5 minutes before cooking. Sprinkling with lemon juice before letting them sit can further enhance its beneficial phytonutrient concentration.



The Healthiest Way of Cooking Kale
Steam kale for maximum nutrition and flavor. Fill the bottom of a steamer pot with 2 inches of water. While waiting for the water to come to a rapid boil chop greens. Steam for 5 minutes and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and chopped walnuts or combine chopped kale, pine nuts, and feta cheese with whole grain pasta drizzled with olive oil.



Here are some additional recipes from WHFoods that feature Kale
• Healthy Breakfast Frittata
• Poached Eggs Over Sauteed Greens
• Super Energy Kale Soup
• 5-Minute Kale

What is your favorite way of cooking and preparing kale? Any horror stories?

Thought you might enjoy this humorous article from the New York Times about Kale....



On This Farm There Was Animosity



I don’t care if it’s good for you, because to me kale has always been a four-letter vegetable. We seemed to have a lifetime supply this summer courtesy of the local community-supported agriculture farm. When Ira, my spouse, told me he signed us up for $575 last spring, I balked at the cost. Did it really make sense? Our little Long Island weekend town already has a farm stand and a grocer with local produce.

When we went for our first Friday share pickup one June evening, I took an attitude. But I had forgotten to take a bag. A blackboard in the farm’s shed listed our meager allotment of vegetables — all stored in crates on tables as if they were art in vitrines. I snickered and went to take a plastic bag from underneath a box.

“Can I use this?” I asked.

The answer from the young person in charge was a cold, hard no.

“She wasn’t very nice,” I told Ira as we drove away.

“No, but neither were you,” he said.

He was right. I don’t do well with rations, cooperation or the righteous, and the weekly e-mails we started getting from the farm were rich with the passion of latter-day locavores. We were encouraged to learn to compost and constantly asked to help the manager and his apprentices with the farm work. But that’s your job, I thought.

I’m not sure why those kids at the farm started to bug me so much. They were young and thin, so that was annoying to a middle-aged man with a paunch. I think what was more off-putting was the simple fact that they seemed to have ideals intact that had grown fallow in my spirit years ago. They rarely smiled when we passed; I knew they were distracted with hard labor (for which they were paid $1,000 a month plus housing), but I still wondered if the lack of friendliness was because they saw us, the farm’s financial supporters, as nothing more than a necessary evil, “the man,” as it were. “If you’re not out in the fields with them picking off potato bugs,” a more active fellow farm member told me, “they do kind of see you as mutant leeches.”

The handsome, Ivy-League-educated farm manager seemed particularly angry. He was the one who barked at me to get out of the way of his truck when I was picking my own basil. He was the one who told me, when I asked for some garlic that was hanging from a shed, that I’d have to wait a week, even though I needed it for a dinner party that night. “No exceptions,” he said. I snapped, “Thanks!” He snapped back, “You’re welcome!” Then we shot each other dagger glances and walked in opposite directions.

As summer wore on and purple carrots and heirloom tomatoes appeared at our pickups, it was hard to hold a grudge. Our produce gave us bragging rights at our dinner parties, and picking our own cilantro and flowers was uplifting, even if we were about as invested in the process as Marie Antoinette. Then there was the essential miracle of a working organic farm, fecund and well run, on densely populated Long Island.

One rainy day in September, the farm manager made a rare appearance at the pickup shed. He was smiling, and his blue green eyes were bright as bachelor buttons against his tan face. It had been a terribly hot and dry summer. “But this rain puts me in a very good mood,” he told me. He admitted that his people skills weren’t great. But in fact he was happy to talk about his work and his life. There was a lot to do: ordering seeds in winter, laying irrigation lines, plowing, planting, harvesting, watering, weeding, pest-killing, paperwork and dealing with a burned-down barn. I felt a little sick to my stomach for being so thankless and resentful. This gentle young man had a farm to run, a family to feed and a staff to house and pay on a minuscule budget.

On top of that he had stomach problems, but he said eating kale had helped a lot. With great enthusiasm, he told me how good it was for the digestive system, and explained how to sauté it with garlic, but not for long or the nutrients would be depleted. I left that evening with a pound of kale and cooked it up as he’d suggested. If not delicious, it was at least absolutely edible. I told Ira it was full of antioxidants.

“And it’s also an anti-inflammatory,” I added.

“Exactly what you need,” he said.



Bob Morris is a longtime contributor to The Times, a columnist for The New York Observer and the author of “Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double-Dating With My Dad.”