Is it good for you or bad for you?
Kale is one of those super-foods, right? Eat tons of it, the experts tell us.
A few years ago, my husband and I bought a juicer, and
despite the ridiculous amount of money and time involved, we jumped on the
juicing bandwagon. About once a week we juiced kale, beets, carrots, apples,
cucumbers, berries, spinach and the final product resembled a water glass used
for rinsing dirty paint brushes. Sometimes it tasted pretty good; sometimes it
tasted more like kale than anything else, but at least we felt we were doing something
good for our bodies.
But now it comes out that kale has a “dark” side. Apparently,
according to some medical research reported by Oregon State University, kale can cause hypothyroidism in women over
40. It has something to do with something called goitrin and its interference
with how the thyroid operates (you can tell how medically eloquent I am). Now, I would imagine large amounts of the leaf
would have to be eaten in order to induce this, but still…it made me sigh with
resignation. It just seems like we find
out something is good for us, we're told we should eat tons of it (soy, for example),
only to find that it causes this health or hormone disorder or another
(elevated estrogen levels, etc.).
In my mind, it’s like this: food for the stomach, the
stomach for food. Something’s going to get you one way or the other, so we
might as well enjoy what we eat.
What foods have you been disappointed to learn were bad for
you?
