Kale is gaining popularity. It is great sautéed with garlic and olive oil, perfect in soups or salads, and terrific when dehydrated and eaten crispy. Kale has a nutritional profile that is hard to beat. It is full of vitamins, minerals and fiber and contains no fat or sugar. Whether you are a dieter or health food nut, it is a perfect vegetable choice, that is if it is organic kale!
Each year one billion pounds of pesticides are sprayed on vegetables and fruits around the country and with all the information out there regarding the dangers of pesticides, it is common knowledge now that eating vegetables grown organically just makes the best sense for your health and the environment. Of course, choosing organic can be a bit pricier, but when it comes to kale, you should find that the price difference is often not that great. Organic kale is usually only slightly more expensive than conventionally grown kale.
There are actually fifty commonly used pesticides when growing kale conventionally! Several of them have been shown to cause a variety of health problems ranging from cancer to hormonal disruption. Kale is referred to as one of “the dirty dozen”. Magazines love to list the top ten or twelve vegetables that are considered the most contaminated with pesticides and in every list I have read, kale is not only on mentioned, it is usually toward the top of the list.
Apparently the insects love kale as much as we do! It is surprising, actually, to find out that kale is so heavily sprayed because it is such a hearty vegetable. The reason for this is that when kale is grown on a large scale, in an agricultural setting, it attracts a lot of pests. This pesticide residue cannot be totally rinsed off, and since you cannot peel kale, it is best to buy it organic.