Important Facts Regarding Cabbage Nutrition
When reviewing the nutritional advantage of fruits and vegetables, cabbage nutrition often takes somewhat of a back seat. When we remind someone to "eat your veggies", it's all too often it is said with peas, carrots, corn or potatoes in mind. It may be that we tend to think more of lettuce as a natural base for a salad, than cabbage, or are somewhat put off by the lingering smell cooked cabbage can sometimes leave.
This is a little unfortunate, as cabbage, along with most of the other members of the Crucifer family, is a nutritional powerhouse. In addition to the usual vitamins, minerals, or other trace elements we find in many of the other vegetables, the list of cabbage nutritional features items includes a number of lesser known compounds and elements which, among other things, are proven cancer fighters, beneficial to the cardiovascular system and the digestive system, helpful in the fight against certain neurological disorders, and shown to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in the body.
There are three major types of cabbage commonly eaten in the United States, four if you include Bok Choy, the Chinese cabbage. These three types are white cabbage, red cabbage, and Savoy cabbage. All types are very nutritional with red cabbage in particular noted for its powerful antioxidant properties. Other vegetables closely related to the cabbage plant, including Brussels sprouts, kale, and cauliflower, have similar nutritional features and values.
Cabbage Nutrition - A quick look at cabbage nutrition shows this plant to be an outstanding source of vitamins C and K, and a very good source of vitamin B6, manganese and folate. Cabbage is also a very good source of dietary fiber and of omega 3 fatty acids, the same fatty acids we often look to cold water fish to provide. Cabbage is also a good source of vitamin A, vitamins B1 and B2 (thiamine and riboflavin), as well as calcium, potassium and magnesium. Cabbage is considered to be one of the world's healthiest staple foods.
Phytonutrients, Glucosinolates, Sulforaphane, and I3C - Somewhat lesser known of the facts regarding cabbage nutrition include the roles phytonutrients, glucosinolates, sulforaphane, and indole-3-carbinol, or I3C, play in keeping us healthy and disease free. The phytonutrients have antioxidant properties which function to keep our cells free of the damaging effects of free radicals, by promoting the production of enzymes in our body which perform necessary detoxifying and cleansing operations.
The glucosinolates in cabbage are what make the vegetable a well-known cancer-fighting food. It has become an established fact that women living in countries having cabbage as a staple food item have a far lower incidence of breast cancer than do women in the United States, and in other countries where less cabbage is consumed.
Glucosinolates, together with another nutrient called sulforaphane is believed to inhibit cancers in the bladder and in the colon. Finally, indole-3-carbinol, or I3C, appears to play a role in fighting or otherwise inhibiting certain neurodegenerative diseases, among them Alzheimer's disease. It is thought that I3C, particularly abundant in red cabbage, protects brain cells from an accumulation of protein that causes brain cell damage.
Our digestive system and vascular system also seem to benefit from our including cabbage in our diet. Certain compounds in cabbage appear to keep the cells lining the stomach in good working order and the IcC3 compound, in addition to benefiting our neurological systems also is believed to reduce the amount of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol, in our system.
Summary - Cabbage then appears to do much more than give us rosy cheeks. There are many nutritional features of cabbage that appear to work in deep and perhaps somewhat mysterious ways in our body, but nevertheless work to our benefit.