Cabbage: A thing of beauty

Is cabbage beautiful? To a nutritionist it is. Not quite as glamorous as the tomato or as elegant as the carrot, cabbage is, nevertheless, nutritionally gorgeous.

In yesterday’s e-Alert I told you about the interesting misconception of “vitamin U.” That was the name given to the juice of cabbage cores – a treatment that’s reported to quickly heal various stomach ulcers. And although vitamin U (from the “u” in “ulcer”) has not been formally recognized, there’s no question about the high nutritional value of cabbage.

One of the cruciferous cousins in the vegetable family, cabbage has an excellent ratio of calories to nutrients – that is: low in calories, high in nutrients. With good amounts of vitamins C, A, and B6, cabbage is also an excellent source of calcium (as an HSI member pointed out yesterday), phosphorus, and choline, which helps maintain the neurotransmitters that support memory.

Cabbage also contains three important phytochemicals (plant chemicals that assist in disease prevention): sulforaphane, indoles, and phenolic acids, all of which are believed to help impede the production of cancer cells, as well as decrease inflammation.

If there’s a health drawback to cabbage, it would be the remote chance that it could inhibit your body’s utilization of iodine – a potential problem for those with abnormal thyroid function. But this would only be a concern if you were eating an excessive amount of raw cabbage.

So the next time you cruise past the vegetable stalls, don’t let those flashier veggies distract you from the lowly, but oh, so nutritious cabbage.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute

Sources:
“Extremely Versatile Cabbage” Paulette Millis, Whole Life, wholife.com