Tag: Osteoporosis

Choy Sum, The Next Crossover Hit

It is amazing how crazy people are over kale. Yet, there is a very tasty, friendly and available vegetable that has over 3 times the usable calcium of kale and over twice the usable calcium of a cup of cow’s milk. It is called

Choy Sum

It cooks as quickly as spinach. It can be found in any Asian market. Googling on “choy sum seeds” quickly reveals a variety of sources for growing your own. Searching youtube on “choy sum” will find you a list of videos demonstrating how to cook it.

I think that with all of the interest I read about kale, eating it, making recipes for it, even growing it in pots for apartment dwellers  — that it is PAST the time that choy sum becomes the next “crossover hit” to make it into mainstream American markets.

There are a number of vegetables that are now in mainstream supermarkets that were not there when I was a kid. Most are not as deserving as choy sum, IMO. It is a nutritional powerhouse. Starting asking for it at your local farmer’s market, mainstream supermarkets, co-ops, Whole Foods, TJ’s, etc.

Remember, you read about it here first! 🙂

Quit Dairy, Get More Nutrition?

Virginia Messina RD posted a blog entry describing a study funded by the National Dairy Council about what would happen if, sort of, if plant based sources of calcium were used to replace dairy based sources of calcium in a human diet:

  • vitamin A went up
  • potassium went up
  • magnesium went up
  • sodium decreased
  • saturated fat decreased

Messina wrote that The study didn’t analyze vitamin C, vitamin K, iron or fiber, none of which are found in dairy products and all of which would likely go up by replacing dairy foods with plant based calcium sources. Messinia mentions a good point to remember vitamins C, vitamin K, potassium and magnesium are also important for bone health.

So, if you give up cow’s milk and use plant based sources for calcium, you *can* get extra bone health nutrients and decrease problematic substances at the same time. Not a bad deal! :).