Italian Lentil Soup

I found a recipe for kale and lentil soup on a fellow bloggers website, so I decided to try it. The only difference I made was I made it in a crock pot. It is scrumptious, so thank you Italian Food Forever. I have never eaten kale before. The funny thing is this week my sister Carri decided she was going to buy some kale and try making kale chips, so guess what I will be trying, you got it, kale chips next week.

From my readings about Kale, it is chalk full of good nutritious stuff, so I want to add it into my nutritional needs. Here is some great information I found about it:

What’s New and Beneficial About Kale

• Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you will cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they’ve been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it’s easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability–just not as much.
• Kale’s risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer. These types include cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) made from glucosinolates in kale play a primary role in achieving these risk-lowering benefits.
• Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body’s detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale’s glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.
• Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale’s flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.