Health benefits of cabbage
As a kid I could not stand the smell of cabbage. I hated when my mom would make cabbage and ham. I never ate it. I couldn’t stand the smell. As the years worn on, and I found myself married to a cabbage eater, I decided to give it another shot. I found that if you chop it and add it to stir fry or simmer it for hours with onions, peppers, garlic and bacon, it can be quite delicious.
- Fresh, green-leafy cabbage is amazingly nutritious; and yet very low in fat and calories. 100 g of leaves provide just 25 calories.
- The vegetable is packed to capacity with of phyto-chemicals like thiocyanates, indole-3-carbinol, lutein, zea-xanthin, sulforaphane, and isothiocyanates. These are the compounds that are powerful antioxidants and known to help protect against breast, colon, and prostate cancers and help reduce LDL or “bad cholesterol” levels in the blood.
- Fresh cabbage is one of the best sources of the natural antioxidant, vitamin C. Provides an incredible 36.6 mg or for an better illustration about 61% of RDA, and more than oranges the fruit famous for vitamin C. We know the eating foods rich in vitamin C, routinely, helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.
- Total antioxidant strength measured in terms of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC value) is 508 µmol TE/100 g. Red cabbages contain more antioxidant value, 2252 µmol TE/100 g.
- It is also rich in B vitamins which many have a deficiency in and that can cause a multitude of health problems. Vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) and thiamin (vitamin B-1). Our body needs to obtain these vitamins from an outside source so it is to our benefit to find those sources and eat plenty of them. In addition, it is an excellent source of vitamin K.
- It also contains a fair amount of minerals like potassium, manganese, iron, and magnesium.