Not All Vegetables Are Created Equal(ly)

Ah 'tis sad but true, just like not all men are created equally. Some of you may be interested to know which vegetables pack the most bang for your buck. Thankfully the intrepid folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have published an article in this month's Nutrition Action Newsletter where they rank veggies by how much they offer in the way of nutrients, fibre and a few other targets. Read the whole article: Rating Rutabagas.

The top winners are, not surprisingly, leafy greens, squashes and root vegetables with skin on. Here are the Top Ten:
1. Kale
2. Cooked Spinach
3. Collard greens
4. Turnip greens
5. Swiss chard
6. Raw Spinach
7. Canned Pumpkin
8. Mustard greens
9. Sweet potato (with skin)
10. Raw Radicchio
11. Raw Broccoli (almost a 10!)

If you're wondering why cooked vegetables are higher on the list than raw, it's because cooking (as well as other methods of preparation such as fermentation) eliminates or kills off some of the enzymes that inhibit your body's ability to digest the vegetable's nutrients. That's always been the argument for me against going raw more than 30% of the time, apologies to the Raw Foodies out there. My poor digestive tract can't handle a lot of raw foods, and I know I'm not alone.

Now there are Raw chefs out there like the wonderfully talented Aaron Ash at Gorilla Foods who can take a humble kale leaf and turn it into a tantalising dish, and I try to get down to this restaurant as often as I can. But, I can also make do with a more ordinary way to pack my diet full of nutrients. Just cook me some leafy greens with a bit of butter and mmm-mmm, yum, I'm happy inside and out.