Cabbage: Beyond the Traditional Irish and German Fare

Cabbage.  It is full of vitamin C.  In fact, cabbage contains more vitamin C than oranges.  Cabbage is also rich in Iodine which contributes to a healthier nervous system, helping you to think and learn better while reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.  Sulphur is known for helping to heal wounds and infections.  Guess what, cabbage has a lot of it too.  Beyond all this, cabbage is also a “cleansing” food.  It will rid your body of toxins, thereby promoting good skin health and even reducing eczema flare-ups in some people.

Cabbage is used in several cultures and can easily be found in your Chinese take-out, at a 4^th of July picnic, or in some delightful, traditional Irish and German dishes.  However, like the potato, cabbage is not often prepared in ways that help us get the maximum health benefit.  It is often either boiled and salted into oblivion or smothered in a dressing so full of sugar, fat, and preservatives that it could be about as healthy as a milk chocolate bar.

Vitamin C has come to be widely known as one of the most important nutrients.  Beyond being a major immune system booster, it is also helpful in treating depression.  It is also a nutrient that is easily depleted from foods by overcooking them.  While boiled cabbage isn’t at all bad for you, it is not as good for you as raw or lightly cooked cabbage.

 If you are adding it to soup, try adding the cabbage toward then end of the cooking time for your soup.  It may be a little crisper but it will retain more of the nutrients. You can also try shredding it into a salad.  I would recommend adding it to romaine lettuce or various types of field greens as iceberg lettuce is highly lacking in nutrients.

My favorite way to eat cabbage is to lightly sauté it in cold pressed olive oil with red apple slices, purple onion, and a few walnuts.  Because of the juice in the apple and the fat in the walnuts you can use less olive oil. 

Newer studies are showing that fermented foods, like sauerkraut, should be part of our diets for the purpose of ingesting healthy bacteria that will aid in proper digestion and better colon health.  Because sauerkraut is made using raw cabbage, it retains almost all of the nutrients that it began with.  Sauerkraut is also cheap and delicious.  But, you must be careful.  Sauerkraut jarred and sold from store shelves is often overly salted and full of nitrates for preservation purposes.  While most of us can easily claim we do not have time to make our own sauerkraut, it is worth your while to read labels and try to get some that has been preserved without the use of nitrates.

Exotic foods and specialty grocery stores have been gaining popularity for quite some time.  Keep in mind that when it comes to getting the best nutrients for your body; you need not look further than your local grocery store, farmer’s market, or backyard garden.