Heal Your Body With Food!

Want to enjoy a healthy life free of chronic diseases? Your best line of defense, as well as offence, may line up in the kitchen. Healwithfood.org supports your path to better health by equipping you with the knowledge and inspiration to make healthy foods and dietary habits part of your everyday life.

HEALTH FOOD of the week

Broccoli tends to get all the accolades when it comes to health-protecting Brassica vegetables, but the fact is that the cabbage family is full of superstars. Kale, for example, provides a whole slew of vitamins and minerals along with a truckload of glucosinolates and flavonoids. To get the scoop on the nutritional properties of this superfood, check out the article Health Benefits of Kale.

SMOOTHIE of the week

Power Smoothie with Kale, Kiwi and Banana

Don't be intimidated by the kale in this vibrant green smoothie – the pineapple juice, banana, green grapes and kiwi do a great job masking the somewhat earthy flavor of kale! Before throwing the grapes and kale into the blender, make sure you rinse them thoroughly as both kale and grapes typically contain high levels of pesticides. Click on the link below to view the complete ingredient list and instructions, as well as the Tweak It! box which allows you to create a new variation of the basic recipe – for every day of the week!

KITCHEN GADGET of the week

Juicing green leafy vegetables is an excellent way to add vitamin K, vitamin C, folate, chlorophyll and carotenoids into your diet, without adding much sugar. However, the popular centrifugal juicers you see in the shops have been designed to extract juice from solid, juicy fruits, not from leafy greens. By contrast, masticating juicers, which work by crushing and squeezing fruit and vegetables rather than by grinding them, are extremely efficient at juicing leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and parsley. For more on this, check out the Review of Kuvings' Masticating Juicer (pictured above) or read the article Best Juicers for Spinach, Kale and Other Greens.

BOOK of the week

High consumption of green leafy vegetables has been associated with improved health, but coming up with ideas on how to incorporate these nutritional heavyweights into your diet is not always easy. In The Leafy Greens Cookbook, private chef and caterer Kathryn Anible provides 100 creative recipes featuring both common leafy greens as well as some less well known green goodies, such as escarole, dandelion greens, and rapini. To buy this inspiring cookbook, or to read what people who have already bought it have to say, click here (US residents) or here (UK residents).