Swiss Chard

Remember how I said I was done with Swiss chard for the summer? Well, I made a very rushed visit to the farmer's market and those big bunches of (organic) chard were just sitting there looking so wholesome and reasonably priced that I decided to grab them and worry about whether or not I actually wanted to eat them later. I said to myself, I hope this stuff is very nutritious.

In order to find out, I checked in with a few websites (vegonline.org, drweil.com, nutrition-and-you.com, whfoods.com) and found that Swiss chard is probably the healthiest thing a human could possibly eat. Among it's many virtues are:

Great source of Vitamin C, A and K
-716% of RDA of vitamin K making it a great for bone health (Weber 2001)
Great source of Calcium (5% of RDA), Iron, Potassium and Folates.
Great source of all kinds of antioxidants (in addition to vitamins A and C)
Like most vegetables, it may help to prevent cancers.
It's got flavonoids that help regulate blood sugar levels.

So, O.K. The Swiss chard is a great thing to include in my diet. When eaten raw it has a slightly bitter, earthy taste. I decided to try to combat that by adding walnuts and raisins. For dressing I used olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Well, it turns out that that is a great way to eat Swiss chard. I had a giant mixing bowl full of it last night and again tonight (I finished it all!). So, Swish chard is an all around win.

What did I do to avoid diabetes today?

-I ran 3.2 miles (in my neighborhood, uphill both ways)
-I ate a ludicrous amount of Swiss chard.
-I ate an apple, a banana and blue berries.
-I ate 2-3 servings of walnuts (next time I'll find out of walnuts fight for the cause).

References
Weber, P. (2001). Vitamin K and bone health. Nutrition, 7(10),880-887.