The quick answer: Cruciferous vegetables—learn to love them, they’re nutritional champs you should eat most days of the week.
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The Cruciferous Family
These vegetables are named for their four-lobed flower, which has the shape of a cross, thus cruciferous. They’re sometimes called the mustard family because they include the mustard greens. Examples are arugula, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and radishes.
The cruciferous veggies are nutritional rock stars—dollar for dollar, it’s hard to find a better value. Researchers are giving them a lot of attention, and finding these benefits (for more, read here):
Vitamins: These plants, especially the leaves, are a concentrated source for B complex vitamins, vitamin K, plus the antioxidant vitamins A and C.
Antioxidants: The cruciferous family is rich in antioxidants including vitamins A and C (noted above), minerals like manganese, and phytonutrients such as lutein, retinol, and beta-carotene.
Fiber: If you grade foods as calorie dense (sweetened factory foods) or nutrient dense (natural whole foods) the cruciferous vegetables are the champs. For example a 100-calorie serving (about 5% of the daily calories) provides 25-40% of fiber need.
Fighting Cancer
Evidence is still being gathered through studies but cruciferous vegetables may offer anti-cancer protection. They are known to protect cell DNA, inactivate carcinogens, provide anti-inflammatory aid, and mitigate tumor growth and migration.
Vegetable Value
A lot of silliness passes for truth in the media. For example, you often hear laments that poor people can’t afford to eat well. That may be true in some third-world country, but poor has a different meaning in America. So we strongly disagree that the poor can’t eat healthy. In fact, Word of Wisdom Living claims it’s actually cheaper to eat healthy if you’re willing to do three things:
- Write a weekly menu.
- Shop from a grocery list,
- Cook your own food (or be on good terms with a cook).
We made the argument for healthier is cheaper in the post, “Does It Really Cost More To Eat Right?” Vegetables and whole grains are the all-stars from the healthy but affordable diet.
How much food do you eat in a year? Most people, depending on metabolism and energy needs, eat 1200-1500 pounds of food a year. Most vegetables cost less than $1.00/lb in season. You can buy most grains for around a buck also. Bottom line, it’s pretty cheap to eat healthy if you build your diet on veggies and whole grains.
Loving Vegetables
Last year, in the post titled “Hate Vegetables?”, we talked about America’s vegetable aversion. The central challenge in eating healthier is to eat the recommended 5 daily servings of vegetables.
This Healthy Change—one of eight on vegetables—addresses the cruciferous family:
Please comment: Share your favoritre way of enjoying cruciferous vegetables. Some like them with a cheese sauce—it's the healthiest use of cheese I can think of.