There’s an “under” side to this very popular green leafy vegetable.

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The underbelly (aka the hidden and unpleasant) side. So many people have come to love and eat kale, no matter whether it’s raw, steamed, juiced and even as chips. With all this tasty innovation and kale making appearances on television and even at the White House, there’s been a lot of controversy about kale in recent years. Some going as far as starting up the American Kale Association to medical researchers claiming that kale might be bad for you! As someone who was an early adopter and promoter of kale (as in the early 90’s), I had to get to the bottom of the issue.

During my research, I came across one of my favorite resources. Every year, the Environmental Working Group publishes The Dirty Dozen, a list of 12 fruits and vegetables that are “dirty”, aka have tested positive for chemical pesticides, fungisides or herbicides. Turns out, in 2019, the EWG tested and discovered several samples of kale that were laced with several cancer causing chemical pesticides. Bet’cha didn’t know that? Neither did I…and for a vegetable that went from zero to hero in less than a decade, I felt like this was the right time to talk about it.

In this episode, we’ll dig into how this so called “healthy” leafy green vegetable became not only one of the most beloved vegetables in the world, but also how it got so dirty in the last decade and became the #1 dirtiest leafy green vegetable. Also, stay tuned to the end of the episode for the alternative clean eating recipe you can make with other leafy greens that aren’t so dirty…

TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE :

• The under side of kale and it’s health impacts
• The history and marketing machine behind the promotion of kale
• The health consequences of eating dirty kale
• Environmental impacts of growing kale conventionally
• What you can do about it
• Quick recipe of other brassica (or leafy) greens

RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE :

See the podcast show notes here.

RECIPE FOR KALE (AND OTHER LEAFY GREENS) LOVERS

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