Health for life

Sweet readers! Don’t forget: Thursday kicks off CHG’s No-Cook July, our month-long journey into Joseph Conrad’s heart of darkness meals made without heat.

But first, today’s question! It comes from the lovely Rebecca. She asks:

Q: My boyfriend loves him some leafy greens and Im trying to, really really trying to, but a few years ago I lived in a co-op where they fed me nothing but leafy greens and its kind of ruined it for me. We even make a bunch of recipes that use greens on your site, but still no go. I think I have a mental block towards them or something, who knows.

Do you have any suggestions for tricking myself into eating more of these great-for-you vegetables? (No, Im not six-years-old, but the strategy is probably similar!)

A: Rebecca! My buds with co-op memberships are having very similar issues right now. Apparently, it’s purslane season.

My favorite trick is sautéing anything down – kale, spinach, chard - and shoving it into egg dishes. Omelets and quiche take very well to leafy greens, and are fairly easy to throw together. You can use half a bunch in one sitting, especially if youre feeding two. For more recipes beyond that, Cheap, Healthy Leafy Greens: 246 Recipes for Cabbage, Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard, and Beyond might be of some use.

But enough from my piehole. Readers, what think you? How do you sneak leafy greens into your own diets?

Want to ask the interweb a question? Post one in the comment section, or write to Cheaphealthygood@gmail.com. Then, tune in next Tuesday for an answer/several answers from the good people of the World Wide Net.

A recent meta-analysis of 6 prospective cohort studies, which included more than 223,000 people, found that:¹

"Increasing daily intake of green leafy vegetables could significantly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes."

The reduction in risk was modest, just 14% for consuming a little over a serving a day. And the benefit was seen specifically with green leafies, not with vegetables on the whole, with fruit, or with fruit and vegetables combined.

Green leafy vegetables in these studies included spinach, kale, lettuce, and other greens. Had the definition of "green leafy vegetables" been broad enough to include other members of the cabbage and lettuce families, and green herbs such as parsley, dill, and fennel, there might have been a more pronounced benefit, suggest the authors.

Possible mechanisms for the benefit include omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, and numerous antioxidant compounds all of which are found in green vegetables and all of which have been linked to a lower risk of diabetes or insulin resistance on their own.
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¹ Fruit And Vegetable Intake And Incidence Of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, British Medical Journal, August 2010