Food fact: Kale

A fit body starts in the kitchen. In Food facts we pay extra attention to an ingredient that can help you achieve your goals. In this first edition, we stay close to home and present an unsurpassed home-grown favorite: kale, the winter champion among vegetables.

Full of good things

With just 100 grams of kale, you are well on your way to getting your daily micronutrient requirement. It contains a lot of Vitamin A (85% *), Vitamin C (145% *), Magnesium (31% *) and Calcium (14% *) (* of the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)). And that's not all.

Muscles can be built, but bones can't. Yet, you can eat your bones strong. 100 grams of kale contains almost seven times the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin K: the vitamin that helps keep your bones in shape. Handy when you walk a bit wobbly due to a heavy leg day.

A Kale smoothie a day

Research has shown that the amount of good (HDL) cholesterol increases by 27% by drinking 150 ml of kale juice daily for a period of three months.1 And that the ratio of good and bad (LDL) cholesterol improves by 52% as a result. Too high LDL cholesterol can significantly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

And we all know that nothing gets in the way of a good workout more than a runny nose or a feverish body. So it's a good thing that the vegetable is packed with vitamin C, the vitamin that supports the normal functioning of your immune system.

Vegetable Snack

You've probably seen countless fitness fans add kale to a smoothie or shake. Wherever they sell smoothies, kale smoothies have practically become a staple. But there are other tasty ways you can include kale in your diet as well.

Nothing beats your mother's stamppot (a traditional Dutch dish made of vegetables and mashed potatoes), but also try kale as an ingredient in soups, pasta and stir-fries, or turn it into healthy chips: spread the leaves on a baking tray, sprinkle with herbs and bake at 180 ° C for 20 minutes. Enjoy it!