Bok Choy: Benefits, Nutrition and How to Eat
Bok Choy is a vegetable that is commonly found in eastern cuisine. It was first cultivated in China and has grown into the world food market. Health benefits of bok choy can range from cancer prevention, bone health, all the way to your skin.
Bok choy benefits many different parts of the body and also tastes good when prepared correctly. You can find bok choy at your local supermarket.
It has big green leaves with a thick white bulbous bottom. It looks like a normal plant, but there is more than meets the eye with bok choy. Let’s see the important bok choy benefits, nutrition and how to eat bok choy.
Related Reading: Sunflower Lecithin Benefits and Side Effects
Bok Choy Nutrition Facts
Bok choy has phenols and other phytonutrients. These are some of the 70 antioxidants that can be found inside the plant.
Bok choy is a cruciferous vegetable and finds itself in the same family as kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and cabbage. These kinds of vegetables and are an excellent addition to a healthy diet.
One cup of raw bok choy only contains nine calories, 1 gram of protein, 1.5 grams of carbohydrates, 0.7 grams of dietary fiber, 0 grams of cholesterol and 0.1 grams of polyunsaturated fat.
This plant is packed full of Vitamin A, potassium, calcium, Vitamin B-6, magnesium Iron and Vitamin C which only adds to the range of bok choy health benefits.
The plant has very strong beta-carotene content which ranks it among the top Vitamin A rich foods. It is ahead of other plants in the same family with this content and will be healthier. Other carotenoids like lutein are also present in bok choy.
Bok choy nutrition facts show that it can boost your immune system and make you feel better. Glucosinolates compound found in Bok choy is known to reduce the risk of cancer.
The bok choy benefits are nearly endless as this plant will help cure and fix most ailments.
Nutritional Benefits of Bok Choy: Nutrition Chart
| Nutrient | Unit | Value per 100g | Data Points | Std. Error | 1 cup, shredded 170g |
| Water | g | 95.55 | — | — | 162.44 |
| Energy | kcal | 12 | — | — | 20 |
| Energy | kJ | 48 | — | — | 82 |
| Protein | g | 1.56 | 1 | — | 2.65 |
| Total lipid (fat) | g | 0.16 | 1 | — | 0.27 |
| Ash | g | 0.95 | 1 | — | 1.61 |
| Carbohydrate, by difference | g | 1.78 | — | — | 3.03 |
| Fiber, total dietary | g | 1 | — | — | 1.7 |
| Sugars, total | g | 0.83 | — | — | 1.41 |
| Minerals | |||||
| Calcium, Ca | mg | 93 | 1 | — | 158 |
| Iron, Fe | mg | 1.04 | 1 | — | 1.77 |
| Magnesium, Mg | mg | 11 | 1 | — | 19 |
| Phosphorus, P | mg | 29 | 1 | — | 49 |
| Potassium, K | mg | 371 | 1 | — | 631 |
| Sodium, Na | mg | 34 | 1 | — | 58 |
| Zinc, Zn | mg | 0.17 | — | — | 0.29 |
| Copper, Cu | mg | 0.019 | — | — | 0.032 |
| Manganese, Mn | mg | 0.144 | — | — | 0.245 |
| Selenium, Se | µg | 0.4 | — | — | 0.7 |
| Vitamins | |||||
| Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid | mg | 26 | — | — | 44.2 |
| Thiamin | mg | 0.032 | — | — | 0.054 |
| Riboflavin | mg | 0.063 | — | — | 0.107 |
| Niacin | mg | 0.428 | — | — | 0.728 |
| Pantothenic acid | mg | 0.079 | — | — | 0.134 |
| Vitamin B-6 | mg | 0.166 | — | — | 0.282 |
| Folate, total | µg | 41 | — | — | 70 |
| Folic acid | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Folate, food | µg | 41 | — | — | 70 |
| Folate, DFE | µg | 41 | — | — | 70 |
| Choline, total | mg | 12.1 | — | — | 20.6 |
| Betaine | mg | 0.2 | — | — | 0.3 |
| Vitamin B-12 | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin B-12, added | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin A, RAE | µg | 212 | — | — | 360 |
| Retinol | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Carotene, beta | µg | 2549 | — | — | 4333 |
| Carotene, alpha | µg | 1 | — | — | 2 |
| Cryptoxanthin, beta | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin A, IU | IU | 4249 | — | — | 7223 |
| Lycopene | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Lutein + zeaxanthin | µg | 38 | — | — | 65 |
| Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) | mg | 0.09 | — | — | 0.15 |
| Vitamin E, added | mg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin D (D2 + D3) | µg | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin D | IU | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Vitamin K (phylloquinone) | µg | 34 | — | — | 57.8 |
Possible Health Benefits of Bok Choy
There are so many potential health benefits to bok choy due to the fact that it is loaded with minerals and vitamins. All of these play a key role in keeping your body running smoothly.
Listed below are some of those bok choy benefits:
1. Bone Strength
This is one of the most widely known health benefits of bok choy. The plant is filled with minerals like iron, zinc, magnesium, and calcium and this combination can help strengthen your bones.
It works to prevent brittle bone disease (osteoporosis). Eating bok choy benefits your bones, improves their strength and keep them healthier through your older age.
There is a high level of Vitamin K found in bok choy, this will help your bones stay whole and prevent fracturing.
2. Increased Blood Circulation
Eating bok choy benefits your blood circulation. Iron accumulation in the body is not always a good thing, but in the right amounts, it is extremely beneficial.
The consumption of bok choy is an excellent iron supplement for people experiencing iron deficiency.
Having the proper amount bok choy in your diet will help your body keep the oxygenated blood around to the important organs.
3. Heal Faster
Vitamin K has been found to be a necessary part of any diet. It is a critical part of bone strength, heart health, and its blood-clotting properties. It can be extremely beneficial to someone recovering from an injury, surgery, or experiencing excess bleeding.
The benefit of bok choy is that this has some of the highest Vitamin K levels in the cruciferous family. Supplementing bok choy into your diet will add this crucial vitamin into your system.
4. Cancer Protection
Bok choy has sulfur-containing compounds called glucosinolates which may reduce the risk of breast cancer, lung, prostate and digestive tract cancers.
These compounds could help the body eliminate the carcinogens, prevent the cells from turning into cancer, or alter metabolism to stop the development of hormone-sensitive cancers. Just one cup of bok choy contains 38 milligrams of glucosinolates.
Unfortunately, there has not been much research on this potential bok choy health benefit. There is no set daily amount that should be consumed to prevent cancer. There are very few studies that show the anti-cancer benefits of eating bok choy.
5. Heart Health
Consumption of bok choy benefits your heart too. It contains folate and Vitamin B-6. These have both been found to remove the amino acid homocysteine from the blood.
High amounts of this amino acid increase the bodies risk of getting cardiovascular disease. By eating one cup of shredded bok choy, you will gain 11 percent of the recommended daily intake of both compounds folate and Vitamin B-6.
You will also increase the amount of potassium you eat on a daily basis. It can help you regulate the heartbeat. Inside bok choy, there is also calcium and magnesium, both are critical for bone health but also help your heart as well.
Calcium helps stimulate the heart muscles, and magnesium relaxes them. These are all crucial compounds that are necessary to have in your daily diet. You can get all these nutritional benefits by eating bok choy.
6. Eye Care
Bok choy benefits your eye health in numerous ways. It contains a high amount of Vitamin A, more than some of the other cruciferous plants. Vitamin A is composed of various carotenoids, including beta-carotene and alpha-carotene.
It is an important component for eye health. Vitamin A helps in the prevention of macular degeneration and oxidative stress in the retina.
Eating just a cup of bok choy every day will begin to provide your body with this eye saving vitamin. It will help keep your vision stronger as you advance in age.
Your eyesight will not increase from eating this plant, but you may notice less eye fatigue at the end of each day.
Related Reading: Natural Remedies to Get Rid of Yellow Eyes
7. Immune System
The vitamins found in the bok choy are all essential for boosting your immune system. Vitamin C is one of the best for that boosting. This plant has one of the higher concentrations of Vitamin C in the cruciferous plant family.
Vitamin C in bok choy benefits in improving white blood cells. It stimulates the production of white blood cells but also acts as an antioxidant. It prevents oxidative stress and chronic disease throughout the body.
It also is an important part of collagen, which aids in the healing and recovery and is a part of every cell. Adding bok choy to your daily diet will help boost your immune system and keep you feeling better, longer.
How to Eat Bok Choy?
You can find bok choy recipes all over the internet. Bok choy is being eaten for thousands of years so there is a good chance that you will like one of the options.
How to eat bok choy? Well, you can stir-fry it, cut it up, boil it or just eat it raw. Listed below are some bok choy recipes:
1. Stir-fried with Mushrooms
Chop the bok choy into small pieces and place them in a wok. Add in oyster sauce and mushrooms, either wild or store bought, and you have yourself some stir-fried bok choy.
You may also want to add baby corn, snow peas or rice to this dish to fill It up a bit. But, keeping it simple is always an option.
2. Dumplings
Making homemade dumplings is a very fun and easy task. You just need some thin dough and the filling.
Make sure to mince the bok choy into manageable pieces and don’t overfill the dumplings. You can also add rice or meat to the dumpling to change up the flavor.
3. Soup
All you need is bok choy, green beans, potatoes and daikon radish with meat and tamarind, tomatoes and onions to make a Filipino sinigang soup.
This soup is a bit on the spicy side but will provide an excellent amount of both vitamins and minerals to your diet.
4. Salad
Salads are a great meal when you do not have a lot of time but want to eat something healthy. They’re also good because you can make them in any way you want. Chopping up the bok choy into small pieces will make it easier to add to the salad, but the flavor will go well with any choice.
Bok choy is an ancient cruciferous plant that has provided nutrition to cultures for thousands of years. You can add it in a variety of dishes and eat with any meal.
You will probably start noticing bok choy benefits after a few months of adding it to your daily diet. You may see improvement in your overall health and gain a beneficial standing with preventing future ailments.
Bok choy is just a leafy plant that is chock full of vitamins and minerals, but it also has a great flavor pallet, and the entire plant is edible.
Read Next:
- Parsley Tea: Benefits, Nutrition, and Recipes
- Turmeric Ginger Tea: Benefits, Nutrition, and Recipes
- Health Benefits of Eating Garlic and Honey & Delicious Garlic Honey Recipe
Sources
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=152
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/health-benefits-bok-choy-1551.html
