Health Benefits of Mustard Greens for Kids
Antioxidants: Mustard Greens are packed with antioxidants in the forms of Vitamins A and C. These help in fighting the damage done by the free radicals in your child’s body, known as oxidative stress, which are very dangerous to your child’s body’s cells and tissues. Rampaging free radicals in your little one’s body has the capacity to react with compounds in his or her body and oxidize them to cause inflammation and disease formation. Anti oxidants found in mustard greens protect your child’s body from these health concerns by combating these free radicals, reducing possible inflammation and helping to protect his or her healthy cells throughout the respiratory, digestive, nervous and cardiovascular systems.
Detoxification of Liver and Blood: In today’s world of processed, calorie and cholesterol filled food options your child’s liver and blood needs detoxification to neutralize the environmental and food toxins that he or she ingests on a daily basis. Mustard greens are great for clearing up your little one’s liver by literally pulling out environmental toxins from his or her blood stream. Introduction of mustard greens in your child’s regular diet greatly helps in decreasing toxin-related damage to his or her cells thereby reducing the future chances of these becoming cancerous later on in their lives.
Anti-Inflammatory Benefits: Mustard greens are an excellent source of Vitamin K for your child. Vitamin K acts as a direct regulator of your child’s inflammatory response system. Regular consumption of mustard greens by your little one can prevent the occurrence of chronic unwanted inflammation which in turn can further reduce the risk of your child developing other chronic diseases.
Bone Health Benefits: Mustard greens are packed with Vitamin K – one of the main vitamins involved in your child’s bone mineralisation, blood clotting and removal of calcium deposits from unwanted parts of your child’s body. Vitamin K also helps support your child’s brain and metabolism to function healthily. It can also help to prevent and heal bruises in your little one.
Helps Lower Cholesterol: Faulty lifestyle and food choices high in fat and not enough leafy greens in your child’s diet can result in inadequate production of bile or difficulty in converting cholesterol into bile acids. Cooked mustard greens have the ability to increase bile binding and lowers the level of cholesterol in your child’s body. A recent study conducted by TS Kahlon, MC Chiu and MH Champan has shown that inclusion of steam cooked mustard greens in your child’s diet can significantly improve the invitro bile binding process which helps in lowering cholesterol levels in your child’s blood.
Immunity Building: One cup of steamed mustard greens is a great way to help repair and nurse the body of your toddler. Vitamin C helps repair and maintain your little one’s teeth and bones, slows down and prevents cell damage, maintains healthy body tissues, boosts your child’s immune system, help fight off free radicals, build collagen, and help maintain blood vessels. A strong immunity helps your child’s body carry out a variety of vital functions.
Dietary Fiber: Dietary fibers assist your child in maintaining good colon health, manage healthy metabolism and proper digestion. Mustard greens are an especially rich source of dietary fiber for your child. It assists to lower the levels of toxins in your child’s digestive tract and normalize serum cholesterol levels. Proper digestion and healthy metabolism also helps in preventing obesity and chronic gastrointestinal diseases in your child.
It can be a challenge to incorporate mustard greens into your child’s diet due to its intense mustardy and peppery taste. However there are many delicious recipes available which can be successfully used to introduce your little one to this powerhouse green through soups, sautes and salads with a citrus dressing which will further assist in the absorption of calcium.
Some concerns with regards to mustard greens that you need to keep in mind when serving to your children are that reheating might cause a conversion of nitrates to nitrites and the formation of certain types of bacteria. So it is best to have your child eat the greens right after cooking them. The fiber richness of mustard greens may also result in your child losing nutrients such as iron, magnesium and calcium because of the easy movement of his or her digestive tract. So, you need to monitor your child’s bowel movements and moderate the consumption of mustard greens as per requirement of your little one.
