Last year I shared with LTY readers a little bit about our family’s journey with trying to adopt a more nutritarian lifestyle. Although I don’t think we will ever be the type of family to be strict anything – why give yourself more reasons to stress in this world – we have been trying to be more conscious of the nutrient content of our food, not just the caloric content. One key takeaway from our food journey was the importance of eating greens of all shapes and sizes. Someone once told me that just eating iceberg lettuce was just like eating nothing and had no nutritional value simply because it had very little caloric value. Now that we know about micronutrients, not just macronutrients (ABC+ vitamins and such), we know that that simply is not true!
Unfortunately in Russia it was very difficult to find fresh greens. I could occasionally find fresh spinach, and usually red and green leaf lettuce if I went to the market. The grocery stores might have one or two types of old, gross looking greens, arugula maybe once or twice a year, and we found baby spinach one time right before we got ready to move. Anyway, it was hard to find greens! And the one green that I absolutely never, ever found – kale!
For a nutritarian, kale is the gold standard for nutrient density. It scores a perfect 1000 on the nutrient density chart. Now that we are in the states, I am super excited by the abundance of greens at my local HEB, and most especially the kale!
Here is a snapshot of all of the nutrients that can be found in a single cup of kale!
For more information on kale and its health benefits, visit World’s Healthiest Foods kale page.
Any kind of green is difficult for little mouths to chew and kale has a slightly bitter flavor, so I think it might be difficult for an epicutie to love. I want to focus on a few easy to eat, delicious kale recipes that will make it attractive for your little one’s developing palate.
Look for these kale recipes in the upcoming weeks -
- Kale Chips
- Tomato, Carrot and Kale Spaghetti
- Green Smoothies
Does your family eat kale on a regular basis? If so, I would love to know some of the recipes that you love!
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