April, 2004

Think of your favorite Chinese restaurant. When you eat a stir fry, you know it's packed with snow peas, sprouts, healthy oils, veggies, and more. The secret to that three-days-full feeling is a variety of Chinese cabbage, the bok choy. This superfood is higher in nutrients than regular cabbage.

As it is, regular cabbage speeds ulcer healing and improves your digestion, so your stomach loves cabbage. Your eyes love cabbage because it prevents cataracts with lutein. It cuts the risk of birth defects, so your baby loves it. It may reduce the risk of cancer as well as heart disease and stroke. Your whole body loves cabbage. However, bok choy may also fight breast cancer. The compounds brassinin and sulforophane have been linked to prevention of breast tumors and breast cancer (also colon cancer), respectively. It's a recommended part of the Eat 5 A Day campaign. Also, bok choy is higher than regular cabbage in vitamin C, potassium and almost your entire recommended daily allowance, or RDA, for beta-carotene.

While traditional bland diets have advocated boiling cabbage, bok choy loses nutrients. Raw is best, but you can also have Chinese coleslaw. See the recipe in this newsletter's Recipes section.

Bok choy is available year-round and is also known as Celery Mustard, Chinese Mustard, Onf Choy, Pak Choi, Spoon Cabbage, and Taisai. Store bok choy in an unsealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for more than a week, but use within four to five days for best flavor. Blend bok choy with toasted sesame oil, soy sauce (see our related article for tips on soy sauce, http://www.livingright.com/livingright/articles/wholesoy.php), and/or hot peppers such as chilies.

You can increase the bok choy in your diet with LivingRight appliances such as the Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus Food Processor DLC-2011, great for making coleslaw.

Anyone for Chinese?

Buy the Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus Food Processor: http://www.livingright.com/itemdtl.php?itemid=133

Free Gifts from Cuisinart! Receive a mail-in certificate for a Free Disc Holder DLC-DH ($18.95 Value) and a 9 1/2" Fluted Cake Pan AMB-95FCP ($26.00 Value) with the purchase of a DLC-2011 of any color.