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An Easy Way to Eat the Healthiest Food You’re Not Eating (Kale)

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August 11, 2010
	Jo Wehage : Head Operations Ego

When I was young and my parents tried to get me to eat greens I would tell them “The only green thing I like is money.”  Well, two great things have happened; I still love money, but it doesn’t rule my life and I’ve found numerous was to eat greens. The latter is probably the bigger feat for me.

Even as an adult I ate FAR too few dark green leafy vegetables. I had an interest in health, so I knew the benefits, but I struggled to get them into my own routine. Now I can blow through bunches of kale like there’s no tomorrow – you can too.

The Way

Try this for yourself, and then try it on your kids. It’s so easy and outrageously healthy you might find yourself doing a little kale dance when you’re through.

Simple Kale Chips

This is a crunchy, salty snack that will take the fear out of dark green leafy veggies for just about anyone. I first learned about them from our own Head Mommy Ego (Phyllis McCarthy) who has kids that begged her to make them for her when I was on the phone with her.

1 bunch kale (I use the green and red kale with the curly edges)

2 teaspoons olive oil

Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

Fold the kale leaf in half and pull the leaf from the center stem. Tear into chip-side pieces on the cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt to taste. Bake about 8-12 minutes or until edges are brown and kale is crispy when moved in pan.

It will only take a chip or two for your taste buds to tell you to keep it coming! 

Gourmet Kale Chips

One HAE reader told us about a teacher she found on Facebook who makes kale chips at school in her kid’s cooking class. Two gold stars for this great teacher! She also spruced up our kale chips with some flavorful options. Give these a try and let us know what you think.

Prepare as above, but add a touch of apple cider vinegar to the mix.

To that mix she adds maple syrup, curry powder, or minced ginger. You can also try lemon or lime juice and even garlic powder.

The Reason

I knew kale should be a health target of mine when I saw a friend, Dr. Michael Greger, give an outstanding lecture on the impact cruciferous vegetables have on cancer. I remember him saying “All hail kale,” and for good reason.

Scientific studies now show that cruciferous vegetables, like Kale, include some of the highest concentrations of a sulfur compound called sulforaphane which helps the body fight off cancer. It increases the liver’s ability to produce enzymes that neutralize potentially toxic substances.

Kale is the most concentrated source of lutein, which act like sunglasses, filtering UV light and preventing damage to the eyes. I recall Dr. Greger holding up a popular multivitamin which proudly proclaimed in had somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 mcg of lutein. He held up one leaf of kale and informed us it had more than 20,000 mcg of lutein.

Kale also had more than 1,000% of the RDA for vitamin K, something most people are deficient in, 200% of your vitamin A and 88% of your vitamin C.

What’s not to love?

PS: Yes. For those of you who know me, I also add kale to my morning smoothie almost every day. (Protein powder, rice milk, blueberries, banana + super foods galore.)