Cabbage Health Benefits and Side Effects

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As far as vegetables go, cabbage is one of the healthiest ones out there. It’s rich in many different vitamins that help your body in all kinds of ways. It’s also good for preventing cancer. Although for some people, cabbage has some unpleasant side effects. But despite this, it’s safe to say that to many, cabbage is a superfood. It’s even the focus of some diets. So if you are considering giving a cabbage a try, don’t worry, it’s a great food, but you will want to understand it.

Cabbage Health Benefits

Cabbage is rich in protective vitamins. The outer leaves of the plant are good for eating raw and are rich in Vitamin E. These leaves can also be used to relieve swelling and inflammation in certain parts of the body. Cabbage is also good for preventing many types of cancer. Colon, breast, and prostate cancer specifically. Cabbage juice is also good if you struggle with eating it directly. Like most vegetables, cabbage is low in both calories and fats. It also contains minerals such as calcium, iron, folate, potassium, magnesium, and manganese.

Cabbage Juice Benefits and Recipe

Cabbage juice has tons of health benefits too. Some of its benefits include:

• Helping achieve strong bones.
• Relieving constipation.
• Helps treat obesity.
• Helps treat acne.
• Treats headaches.

It has many other health benefits too, and is rich in many antioxidants.

A popular cabbage juice recipe that can be done easily with a juicer of blender only requires five ingredients. All you need is:

• A cabbage (preferably red.)
• 2 lemons.
• 1 pear.
• 1 cucumber (peeled.)
• And a bit of ginger.

Then you just juice or blend! Of course you will want to wash your ingredients first and cut them up, but that’s really it. This will make around a pint and a half of juice.

Cabbage Side Effects

As awesome as cabbage is (which is pretty awesome), it does have some side effects. While naturally these aren’t positive, not everyone is effected by them. So don’t let these side effects scare you away. Give cabbage a try, then decide if it could be a normal vegetable for you.

Cabbage can cause some bloating, because it contains a lot of an indigestible sugar. Naturally, the more you eat, the more bloating you may experience. While cabbage does help with constipation, it can also drive you to the other extreme- diarrhea. This is because it is so rich in fiber. Cabbage also contains a lot of Vitamin K, which is a good vitamin for reducing and preventing blood clots. But too much of this vitamin is not good for you. It could eventually even thin your blood out. But if you are eating normal amounts of cabbage, this shouldn’t be a problem. Cabbage has a few other side effects, but these are the main ones. Keep in mind that for most people, if you aren’t eating insane amounts of cabbage you probably won’t have any problems.

How to Pick and Store Cabbage

If you grow your own cabbage, you will know it’s ready when you can see the head of the plant, and the head is firm and not floppy. When it’s like this, cut the head of the cabbage away from everything else. As far as storage goes, cabbage can be stored in your refrigerator for many weeks. Store bought cabbage can also stay in your fridge for a long time. So, if you already grow other plants, cabbage is not too difficult.

Allowed Daily Consumption of Cabbage

Cabbage is a very healthy plant and vegetable when consumed in reasonable amounts. As with most foods, too much is bad for you, and can have negative effects on your body. It isn’t recommended to eat or drink very much cabbage during pregnancy, because for some women it has had a negative effect. Also, eating more than 2 cups of cabbage a day is bad for your blood, because of the amount of Vitamin K in cabbage. Less than this amount of cabbage will have positive effects though. Also, consuming more than 1,500 grams of cabbage a day can result in hypothyroidism. But eating that much cabbage is pretty extreme.

All in all, cabbage is a great food to eat for a lot of reasons. It’s obviously extremely healthy, and can be eaten in many ways. It’s relatively tasteless to many people, so it can be cooked or juiced with just about anything. So, if you haven’t really given cabbage a try, consider trying it out today!