Red Cabbage & Vinegar

CONSTITUTIONAL NUTRITION INSIGHTS

Red cabbage & Vinegar Stew's tangy flavor and rustic heartiness will make you pine for the Ukrainian grandmother you never had. Perfect for a dark winter night, stimulating vinegar gets your blood moving when the cold leaves you feeling constricted. Darker foods like red cabbage seem only too fitting for a season with very little sunlight. Your body enjoys these mineral rich foods because of their earthiness. Meanwhile, cabbage's natural sweetness and a dash of brown sugar puts a smile to your lips, replacing the bitterness of winter with the affection of togetherness.

Your Body's Change from Thanksgiving to Christmas

As the late fall Thanksgiving turkey wanes into a quieter Christmas gander, your cravings for red cabbage come to the forefront. Across the world, cabbages are known as a poor man's food. By late December, the harvest bounty seems like a distant memory. Taking a moment to reflect inward, you realize that you are happy for the change in pace. Not only because the pantry is bare, but because your body really needs relief from the overstuffing of autumn. You realize that Christmas really IS a lighter meal than Thanksgiving, in more ways than one.

While the thanksgiving table is full of fatty desserts like cheesecakes and pudding pies, Christmas treats are noticeable less rich. Sugar plums and candy canes steal the spotlight instead. However, all the fat of fall may still be lingering in your bloodstream, and congesting your liver. Vinegar's sour flavor is a cholagogue, meaning it purges toxic bile from the liver, and helps with fat digestion and metabolism. Cabbage has been featured in many weight loss diets as a negative calorie food. It inhibits the conversion of sugar and carbs into fat and speeds up metabolism. Take caution with eating raw cabbage however, as compounds in raw cabbage and other cruciferous veggies suppress the thyroid.

Cabbage's Purple Color

Towards the end of the holiday season, the oranges of Thanksgiving give way to the deeper reds of mulled wine, dark brown gravies, and the purples found in red cabbage. Cravings for these darker colors represent your body's natural desire to build rakta, the red part of your blood. Every phlebotomist (a nurse who draws blood) knows that blood can be separated into two parts, the clear plasma part, and the red blood cells. Rakta is Ayurveda's term for the red part of the blood. Ever notice that everyone looks pale in the winter? Red cabbage is your body's attempt to put some color back in your cheeks.

Cabbage's red color indicates its abundance of anticancer and antioxidant flavonoids. These phytonutrients increase the activity of the liver's detox enzymes, prevent tumor growth, and scavenge free radicals. Cabbage is known in Ayurveda for its calm, coolness much like the cucumber. You'll notice these cooling, detoxifying effects as a freshness in your mind and skin. Your eyes will also feel more relaxed.

Cabbage and Cleansing

Humble fare, like cabbage, is nearly always healthier than the decadent fare of the wealthy. Cabbage is a light vegetable, full of roughage, and full of nutrients as well. In our home, cabbage is a fallback food - a staple we return whenever our diet is out of hand from kid's birthday parties to holiday celebrations. There is nothing like a cabbage soup to bring our life and health back into perspective. The fiber in every bowl of cabbage soup is like a mini cleanse.Leave a Comment

Constitutional nutrition is tailored to the individual. In the kitchen, especially during your family’s formative years, you shape your family's lifelong health.

Understanding your child's constitution is key to raising resilience, instead of wiring in disease. Study constitutional medicine to discover the keys to personalized nourishment.

Rooted in the insights curated from Ayurveda and Greek medicine, constitutional medicine teaches you which foods match your body, so you and your family have true vitality, strength, and balance. See How it Works.