Category:
Introduction
On Greens
Research seems to show that these cruciferous (the flowers of all the Brassicaceae are four petalled, symmetrical, small and yellow) vegetables can enhance the body’s ability to protect itself from certain neoplasts (cancers) and other diseases. Well, cooked or raw, there is plenty of fiber present, always an aid to good digestion. The species epithet, oleracea, means stinking, or at least smelly. The form which smells the least to me, collards, is also one of the richest in calcium, with the most favourable ratio of phosphorus available, and contains more vitamins and minerals than most of the other cabbagey things. Or even most things period.*
The chards are of the same family as the beets and mangel-wurzels. All of these are prone to being rich in oxalic acid, with its unfortunate affinity for calcium. We are not advising that you eschew them entirely, for that matter we have no advice for you, eat whatever you want.
Spinach, so universally touted as the calcium panacea, also contains more than enough oxalate to cancel out its calcium burden, in terms of its availability to you.
The chicory family, radicchio, the endives and escaroles, are a delight cooked or raw. The outer leaves may be coarse enough to hold their own in a stew, while the inner leaves are always cool and slightly bitter, raw, in any kind of salad or sandwich.
All of these are good to eat raw; at least when the leaves are young, but many are more digestible and tastier when cooked.
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