I was introduced to Bo’s site Eat More Kale by one of our viewers.  Bo, who resides in Vermont, became a farmer’s market sensation with his made-one-at-a-time soft cotton t-shirts.  You’re going to want one.  Here’s Jane wearing one (and munching on the appropriate leaf):

How to enter:

Add a comment that is a  second line to the phrase “Oh the joy of eating the super food kale”. Your  line has to rhyme.  For example the entry could read “It keeps my complexion rosy, never pale”.  You get it. Extra points that don’t count if you incorporate a rhyming word that hasn’t already been used. Only ONE entry per person please.  I’ll delete multiples…

We’ll draw a winner on July 14th.  The winner will be able to choose any t-shirt from Bo’s site (men, women or children sizes, lots of earthy colors, several designs) and he cheerfully agreed to mail the shirt to the winner directly from Vermont. You might want to check out Bo’s you tube video on Screen Printin’ 101.  Scary fun.

What could be better?  New t-shirt, ode to kale, good times.  Get going! (tell your friends). Bale, dale, fail, gale, hail, hale, mail, nail…

WE HAVE A WINNER.  DRAWING TOOK PLACE 7/14/10.

I’ve gotten a couple of comments lately expressing some skepticism about whether it’s okay to eat butter or not. In the nutrition department at Bastyr University, where I teach, we believe that the best fats come from traditional source. In other words, we’re less impressed with the large selection of refined polyunsaturated oils that are so widely used and more impressed with the fats that have come from natural whole foods sources: like butter, ghee and (dare I say it) lard. Yes these products contain saturated fats. And I’m proud to stand up and say I eat them. There.

Did you know saturated fats and cholesterol make the membranes of the cells firm? Without them the cells would become flabby and fluid. If we humans didn’t have cholesterol and saturated fats in the membranes of our cells, we would look like giant worms or slugs. And we are not talking about a few molecules of cholesterol here and there. In many cells, almost half of the cell membrane is made from cholesterol. Foods with cholesterol in them have been a natural part of the human diet for …well forever. Recent studies are actually linking cardiovascular disease more strongly with refined grains, lack of exercise and stress. Not to eating too much butter.

Butter is 66% saturated fat and 30% monounsaturated fats. It is stable, has fewer rancidity problems and maintains its integrity when cooked. Butter contains lauric acid, lecithin and vitamins A & D. If the butter comes from cows allowed access to pasture, the possible presence of omega 3 fatty acids increases. This is great stuff. Plus the temperature at which butter sizzles but doesn’t brown happens to be perfect for cooking eggs. Let’s hear it for auditory cooking signals! When you add fats to certain vegetables it increases the bioavailability of certain nutrients, particularly the fat-soluble vitamins. Nice. Sauté kale in butter and garlic. Live long and prosper.

Within reason (what does that mean? – like a couple of tablespoons a day) butter in the diet is preferable to seed oils and certainly preferable to imitation butters. If you’re still nervous check out THINCS (The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics) - a group of international physicians and scientists that don’t believe that eating foods that contain cholesterol is linked to heart disease. Who knows, maybe they’ll even find out the eating butter helps you make more brown fat (the nutrition buzz word in today’s news). Let’s make scones! Weigh in kids. Do you eat butter? Give me support.

The YOU docs, Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz (more likely their associates), submitted a news piece this week claiming that eating greens will make you smarter.   The article says “Eating three or more servings of spinach and other leafy greens (such as kale and collard greens) slows mental decline because of aging by as much as 40 percent. Spelled out another way: Leafy greens can make your brain function more like the brain of someone who’s five years younger!” They give the credit for this to the brain-friendly nutrients found in dark leafy greens - carotenoids and flavonoids.  Americans are a competitive bunch.  We want to be the smartest, richest, thinnest, most beautiful and famous folks on the planet.  So we are attracted to “news” stories like this.  We eat it up.  I sort of feel like – whatever it takes.  If this angle works, that’s fine by me.  It’s true that simple inexpensive food like flat-leaf Italian parsley is deceptively rich when it comes to nutritional analysis.  Vitamin C, A,  K and folic acid live with those noids too.  Eating leafy greens like collards, nappa cabbage, chard and kale gives you sustained energy, good digestion and pretty skin.  They probably improve your sex life too but if I could prove that I’d have made my fortune and wouldn’t be writing this blog.  How do you eat your greens?  Do you think they make you smarter?  Or was it because you were smart already that you chose to eat greens?