Turnagain Times

Just about every health related article concerning improving the quality of your diet mentions kale and touts this leafy green veggie as the next great “superfood”, but is it all just massive hype? The benefits of kale to your health go well beyond giving you a rush of minerals and vitamins. It’s full of phytonutrients like glucosinolates as well as flavonoids that can give a boost to your system.

Thanks to its wide nutritional profile, kale is said to help combat cardiovascular disease, asthma, and even rheumatoid arthritis. It can also help prevent a variety of cancers as well as premature aging of your skin. There is a lot this leafy green vegetable can do and there are plenty of good reasons you should be adding it to your diet. Let’s see what this powerhouse of a veggie can do.

Kale – An Anti-oxidant

Curly kale is a healthy powerhouse full of antioxidants such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, quercetin and kaempferol. Because of its high antioxidant articles, kale is among the vegetables with the largest ORAC ranking. Only a handful of vegetables, such as raw garlic, sweet potatoes, red cabbage, savoy cabbage, arugula and beet greens have a greater ORAC value or ranking compared to kale.

ORAC, which is the short form for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, assesses foods’ capability to scavenge free radicals. These free radicals are unstable molecules which will cause harm to your body at the cellular stage. The cellular harm caused by free radicals continues to be implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases as well as disorders, such as cardiovascular diseases, macular degeneration of the eye, asthma, thrombosis, an impaired immune system, Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.

Along with offering natural health benefits, kale’s antioxidants also can give beauty positive aspects. The free radical neutralizing results of the antioxidants in kale will help keep your skin appearing great by stopping loss of skin elasticity caused by too much ultraviolet radiation. Whenever your skin is subjected to ultraviolet radiation from the sunlight, it produces metalloproteinases.

Amazing Anti-Cancer Effects

Besides offering a truckload of nutritional vitamins and flavonoids, kale has many glucosinolates which includes glucobrassicin, sinigrinm and glucoraphanin. As you eat food kale, these kinds of compounds are transformed into isothiocyanates in your digestive system. A big body of evidence signifies that isothiocyanates can help stop cancer and, in some instances, even suppress the development of cancerous tumors.

Many of the research linked to isothiocyanates, kale and also cancer has aimed at colon cancer and even breast cancer, however there’s additionally evidence that kale as well as other foods which contain glucosinolates can also offer protection against ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and bladder cancer.

Kale Enhances Urinary Health

If all of the the above-listed positive effects related to eating kale are enough to persuade you to eat much more of this superfood, think about this: the possible health benefits of kale normally include improved urinary health, that may extend far beyond defense against bladder cancer. Kale is outlined as one of the most effective foods to battle UTIs because of its extraordinary dietary profile. Kale is loaded with pro-vitamin A, just about equal to carrots. This is said to enhance healthy surface linings of the body’s urinary tracts.

Getting More Kale

Now while there is probably an inordinate amount of attention being given to this veggie lately, it is a nutrient rich food that you can use to improve your daily diet. It’s health benefits are extremely positive if you can incorporate it into your eating habits.

We also know that not everyone is a salad eater, which is why kale is also a popular ingredient in many green juice recipes. If you would like to take advantage of most of what kale has to offer, this is one way we suggest to do it. If you do plan on juicing kale, a masticating juicer is going to give you the highest juice yield and help you extract the most nutrients. Whatever way you choose to get more kale into your diet, doing so can pay dividends to your health for years to come.

Ever since I entered college, I’ve been a bit infatuated with food. In experimenting with various diets over the years, I have always concluded that those which do not contain meat and dairy are the best. Although I was once vegetarian, I eventually gravitated towards the vegan diet after recognizing that it was a healthier choice. Then I somehow stumbled upon the raw vegan diet. After going through a detoxification period marked by periodic bouts of fatigue and cravings for cooked food, I felt more wonderful, both physically and mentally, than ever before.

If you are currently following a diet that compromises your health or precludes you from operating at optimum levels, you may want to consider converting to a raw vegan diet. Here are three ways to make your transition easier:

1. Do Research

During my conversion process to raw food, I spent endless hours watching YouTube videos and reading articles about how to be successful on the diet. You should do so too. Why? Because gaining information about raw veganism will help you determine whether it’s right for you. Additionally, raw vegan experts can provide you with great advice regarding how to handle detox symptoms, how to overcome cooked food cravings, and more. Get your hand on all of the latest vegan books that you can find and study them intently. You can never stop learning and having a firm grasp of what to expect is the best way to succeed.

2. Buy The Right Tools

Although no two raw vegans are alike, most of them tend to have juicers. This is because eating veggies all day can get a little tiresome and make you feel like a grazing farm animal. Using a juice extractor can break some of the routine and it can offer you a convenient and fun way to still get the nutrients from fresh foods that you need. Vegetables are keen and the best type of machine to use is a masticating juicer. Cold-pressed juice breaks down less quickly and the vitamins and enzymes are more protected from oxidation. Investing in one of these units is well worth the price. Omega, we know by experience, tends to make some of the best cold press juicers out there and they will give you a means to get the most juice out of your fruits and vegetables. They excel with leafy kale, cabbage, and spinach which are a pain to try and juice with a centrifugal machine.

3. Clean Out Your Pantry

Cleaning out your pantry can be a very effective strategy for individuals who are converting to the raw diet. This is the case because keeping cooked food in your living space increases the likelihood that you will eat it. Doing so will be detrimental to your new raw food diet for several reasons. First, it precludes you from experiencing the cleansing effect that results from eating foods in their whole, unprocessed forms. Second, it continually trains your mind and body to crave foods that you are attempting to eliminate from your diet. Thus while you may have qualms about wasting food, cleaning out the pantry can work in your favor during your transition to the raw diet. If the idea of throwing food away is particularly egregious to you, consider giving it away to a food pantry.

Conclusion

In order to lead a healthy life, you have to make healthy decisions. And one of the healthiest decisions you can make is converting to a raw vegan diet that contains copious amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. If you have been thinking about making this type of transition, consider implementing the strategies I’ve listed above. Good luck!