Most people have never even heard of kale before, let alone eat it. Kale is a vegetable that is part of the cabbage family that is recognized as the most potent super-food on earth by ORAC standards. ORAC stands for – oxygen radical absorbance capacity and is used by the USDA to determine the antioxidant capacity of fruits and vegetables. ORAC measures the antioxidant and phytochemical levels and determine how well they work together to fight cell damaging free radicals.
Kale gets the highest ORAC value of any fruit or vegetable at 1770, the next best vegetable is spinach at 1260. Kale has potent phytochemicals like cancer fighting indoles, plant compounds that have been found to have protective effects against breast, cervical, and colon cancer. It also has high levels of sulfur and sulfuraphane which helps the body to detoxify.
Kale is loaded with calcium, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C, and bone building vitamin K. It contains 7x the amount of beta carotene than broccoli and 10x the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are eye protecting carotenoids known to help protect against macular degeneration.
So for people who want to maximize health benefits from their food you cannot get any better than with kale. Since it is the most “bang for your buck” food out of anything out there I would highly recommend eating it very regularly. The good news for people that need to lose weight is that you can eat it in unlimited amounts as well.
