That’s the new cabbage PR slogan. Because at the moment, if you type c-a-b-b into google, the search autofill tool assumes you are looking for ‘the cabbage soup diet’. Which we most certainly are not!

So between a starvation diet, rotten egg smell, and the sad spoils of granny’s crockpot, cabbage doesn’t get much positive press.

The benefits of cabbage:

1. It’s a rich source of vitamin C, higher in fact than oranges. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant and promotes collagen production1, helping with skin elasticity, flexibility, strength and even skin tone2. Great news for soft, smooth and gorgeous skin.
2. It’s full of sulphur (in the form of sulfur-containing compounds known asglucosinolates). Sounds nasty, but sulfur has long been known for its excellent skin healing and skin beautifying effects, and is involved in hundreds of physiological processes3. Sulfur plays an important part, as a carrier of reducing hydrogen and its electrons, in the cellular repair of oxidation.
3. It’s high in silica, a trace mineral that supports skin strength, tone and elasticity, again by means of its role in collagen production4. It also promotes lustrous hair, strong bones and nails. There are a variety of costly sulphur- and/or silica-containing skin creams and treatments on the market, but why not just eat plain old cabbage? You’ll save yourself a ton of dosh.
4. On that note, it’s super cheap. If you weigh up the nutrient density per dollar, cabbage has got to be one of the best food deals out there. There are plenty of people willing to fork out money for exotic-sounding acai, chia, incaberries and other ‘superfoods’, but we tend to forget about the common vegetables which can be just as nutritious.
5. It contains glutamine, which helps to preserve gut lining integrity and mucosal structure5, making cabbage fabulous for intestinal health and gut repair (often necessary for people with an irritated/inflamed gut lining or ‘leaky’ gut caused by dietary intolerances, allergies, IBS etc).
6. Like all members of the Brassicae family (broccoli, kale, bok choy, watercress etc), it’s rich in the precursor to indole-3-carbinol, a powerful antioxidant that supports detoxification in the liver and helps to eliminate ingested toxins and toxic byproducts of metabolism (primarily environmental toxins, uric acid, oestrogen metabolites and free radicals)6 7.
7. Lastly, cabbage is a lesser source of other minerals such as manganese,calcium, iron, phosphorus and potassium. It’s also high in vitamins other than vitamin C, containing vitamins K, A, B1, B2, B6, folate and a little E, plus (somewhat surprisingly) a 1 cup serving of cabbage provides around 7.5% of the daily required amount of omega 3 fatty acids.

How to eat it? Not raw. At least not much of it. Raw cabbage is a goitrogen, that is, it can inhibit thyroid hormone function and down-regulate your metabolism (so too does raw broccoli). Furthermore, raw cabbage can upset a weak digestive system because of its fibrous nature – the cooking process will help start to break it down for easier assimilation and digestion.

Recipe suggestions:

Jamie O is a cabbage fan, apparently (and a bacon fan!). Check out his recipes for red cabbage braised with apple, bacon and balsamic vinegar, and his braised white cabbage with bacon and thyme.

For the benefits of cabbage with the added probiotic boost, see this awesome recipe forsimple sauerkraut.

And finally, grilled cabbage with cream sauce, tuscan cabbage with broad beans and pancetta, and coconut cabbage (sub out the vegetable oil for coconut oil) look pretty scrummy as well.

To further the food-nerd-athon, see this article on a history of cabbage use. From hangover cures (I would imagine via a supporting role in alcohol metabolism and liver detoxification) to staving off scurvy, turns out the humble cabbage has been prized worldwide throughout humanoid history.

Love that stinky cabbage!

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