Kale Nutrients and Its Benefits

In the era of chain fast food restaurants and processed foods, eating healthy is a choice. You can choose between eating unhealthy food like processed foods, which contains small amount of nutrients or healthy one like vegetables, which contains a lot of nutrients. Of course, you have to choose the latter if you want to be healthy. There are a lot of vegetables out there, some of them even considered to be "superfoods" because they are rich in nutrients and also bring health benefits. Kale is one of those vegetables. As any other superfoods, kale contains a lot of nutrients. Not only that, kale is considered to be healthier than spinach too.

What is kale?

Kale is a member of Brassica family, a group of cruciferous vegetables which include collard greens, arugula, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. It is one of the simple crops to be grown by farmer. It can be grown easily even in small plots of land. Kale is inexpensive and is widely available and you can find it throughout the year. As for kale nutrients, there is so much of it. Dont worry, if you want to know what kind of nutrients kale has, we have it.

Kale nutrients

As one of the most nutrient rich foods in the world, kale really contains a lot of nutrients. A lot. Want to know what kale nutrients are? Okay, lets start. When you think about the word "vitamin C", what kind of vegetable or fruit image comes to your mind? Orange, maybe? Youre right, orange is rich with vitamin C. But do you know that kale has more vitamin C than orange? Well, you do, know. A medium orange with weight of 131 grams contains 113% of your daily vitamin C requirement, while a cup of kale with weight of 67 grams contains 134% of your daily vitamin C requirement. Do you know what this means? It means compared gram per gram, kale has twice the amount of vitamin C an orange has.

Kale has more calcium than milk too. 100 grams kale contains 150 mg of calcium, while the same amount of milk only contains 125 mg. If youre looking for healthy fats, try eating kale. Kale is a good source of healthy fat. Each cup of kale contains 121 mg of alpha-linoleic acid or ALA. What is ALA? ALA is the omega-3 fatty acid that boosts heart and brain health. Do you still want to know other kale nutrients? Here is another: compared to other leafy greens, kale contains higher amount of vitamin A. How much? Umm, about 133% of your daily requirement.

Various health benefits

Actually there are still a lot of kale nutrients examples, but now we will present those nutrients with the health benefits they bring. Kale contains nutrition that can are necessary for your hearts health. It contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Studies show that higher intakes of omega-6 reduce the risk of coronary heart disease compared to lower intakes. Another substance beneficial for your health is potassium. One cup of kale contains about 8% of daily intake. Potassium promotes vasodiliation which result in lower blood pressure. Studies also show that people who consume 4,069 mg potassium every day have lower risk of getting ischemic heart disease and cardiovascular disease compared to the people who consume only 1,793 mg every day.

Not only kale is beneficial for your heart, it is also help you maintain optimal digestion and help in weight management. It is a popular diet food too because it contains only 33 calories per cup. Kale nutrients that help in maintaining optimal digestion and weight management are fiber and magnesium.  Fiber in kale helps you feel full longer; while magnesium is helping the body manages stress and maintain optimal digestion.

Fiber is the most important component of human body, in daily need, fiber takes many percentage, thats why you must consider kale as daily intake.