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| Photo courtesy National Kale Day |
Did you know that today is National Kale Day? Here’s some information from the website.
National Kale Day celebrates kale’s incredible health benefits, highlights kale’s culinary versatility, and promotes eating, growing and sharing kale throughout America. National Kale day is the first Wednesday in October and is an annual celebration.
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| Photo courtesy National Kale Day |
Team Kale provides tools, resources, and community so that every American has access to this incredibly nutritious, inexpensive whole food, but can also learn ways to cook and grow it.
National Kale Day is important to this superfood’s future because we need to make sure that kale is more than a flash in the sauté pan. It would be a shame for such a healthy, affordable, versatile and delicious vegetable to go the way of the sun-dried tomato or the other fad foods before it. A leafy green that can thrive on windy city rooftops through the harsh Northeastern winters should be tough enough to hang onto the spotlight, as long as its friends step up to support it.
According to WebMD, kale has the following benefits.
At just 33 calories, one cup of raw kale has:
- Nearly 3 grams of protein
- 2.5 grams of fiber (which helps manage blood sugar and makes you feel full), Vitamins A, C, and K
- Folate, a B vitamin that’s key for brain evelopment
- Alpha-linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid. (While kale has far less omega-3 than fish, it is another way to get some of this healthy fat into your diet.
- Lutein and zeaxanthin, nutrients that give kale its deep, dark green coloring and protect against macular degeneration and cataracts.
- Minerals including phosphorus, potassium, calcium and zin
So celebrate National Kale Day with a kale pizza or smoothie or enchilada or kaleslaw! There’s no end to the possibilities!