If You Think Kale Is A Superfood, You're Missing The Point Of Healthy Foods

I'm sure you've heard somewhere that kale is a superfood. But where did you hear it from?

While some ingredients pack more of a health punch than others, we tend to hype up random foods, thinking they offer more than they actually do.

I'm not saying kale is bad. Kale is great. So is spinach. So are other types of leafy greens.

But Kale takes the salad throne for no reason other than health hype. Kale is healthy, but just because there's a lot of hype built up around it doesn't mean it's more healthy than other foods.

Kale is basically just like any other green.

The truth is, eating greens — ANY greens — is overall healthier than eating, say, Taco Bell. Feel me?

I spoke to Dr. Lauretta Ihonor, a journalist who aims to separate the facts from the bullshit about health and dieting. She told us,

There's nothing wrong with kale, but it has a massive health halo around it. Everyone acts like it's better than [other greens], but the difference between them is negligible.

She actually debunks several other ingredients on her blog, which you can see here.

After cooking kale, it's not much better than other vegetables.

Here's the real deal with kale, according to Ihonor. Eating it raw is the only way to get its full nutritional benefits. When raw, it's packed with necessary vitamins K, A and C, as well as calcium, copper and manganese.

When you cook kale or whip up baked kale chips, this "superfood" loses its "super." It's still healthy, but not as healthy compared to when it's raw.

This study proves that kale loses 89 percent of its vitamin C when cooked. It also basically says that kale, when cooked, isn't healthier than other veggies. Have I made it clear enough yet?

This is why it's important to get all the facts before we start believing everything we read about superfoods.

What's the good news? Well, you don't have to eat kale if you think eating it is a unique form of torture. You can get the same health benefits from eating other types of greens. Kale haters, rejoice!

Next time you hear the word "superfood," take it with a grain of salt.

If you strictly ate superfoods, your diet would be super boring.

At the end of the day, foods that are super for your body might not be considered superfood by health junkies. For example, when kale is introduced into the diet, it can actually cause pretty bad gas and other digestive issues.

If something is working for you, there's absolutely no need to buy into the hype and jump on food trends. Don't ignore the other salad ingredients at the market like spinach, arugula, lettuce and good ol' mixed greens just because you heard somewhere that kale is king.

The same goes for any food.

Of course, you can try whatever you want and I encourage you to do so. It's the only way to figure out what will be good for your own body.

Be wary of blindly abiding by health "rules" you don't know much about. They could just be classic bullshit.