Is raw kale actually bad for you?
Put down that fork! Step away from that salad. You know that extremely green and cruciferous superfood you’ve been gorging on? Hate to break it to you, health food lovers, but recent studies are suggesting that kale may actually be bad for you. Gulp.
The upshot is that rawness might be dangerous when it comes to kale, long a darling of the health food set. As the Baltimore Sun reported, while cooked kale is still regarded as a nutritional powerhouse, if you are chomping down on too many raw kale salads, you may be running the risk of impairing your thyroid.
According to Oregon State University’s Linus
Pauling Institute, kale has long been hailed for its heart-healthy and cancerfighting properties. However it also contains progoitrin, a compound that can interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis, as well as thiocyanate ions, which can overwhelm the iodine your thyroid needs, as the Daily Meal reported.
That means that consuming big portions of raw kale, which you are likely doing to stay
healthy, may actually lead to hormonal irregularities. That may well wreak havoc on blood sugar, weight, and overall metabolic health. Some say you could even develop a goiter. Yikes!
As the Daily Meal noted, an 88-year-old woman in China fell into a coma in 2010 after a case of cabbage-related thyroid dysfunction. In an attempt to avoid diabetes, she had been eating 3 pounds of raw bok choy every day for months. So, the good news seems to be that moderation is best in all things, including kale.