Welcome to my new weekly blog series that highlights a different food each week. I will tell you everything you need to know about that food when it comes to digestion. The good, the bad and the gassy… To kick off the series our first feature food is cabbage! You might be surprised by what you learn.
Cabbage is a versatile vegetable that’s part of the cruciferous veggie family. It can be eaten raw, cooked or fermented. It comes in red, green and Napa/Savoy varieties. It is one of the most highly cultivated veggies on the planet.
For a sensitive digestive system cabbage is best consumed as fermented sauerkraut because it comes with an ecosystem of good bacteria to make digestion and assimilation easier.
The next best way to eat cabbage is cooked. It can be boiled, sauteed or baked. Cooking “predigests” the cabbage, making it easier for the body to break down. Raw cabbage (coleslaw) is the hardest for the body to break down.
Is cabbage good or bad for an IBS diet?
Cabbage is a healthy and highly nutritious food. But it is also known for producing gas in people and it is not just because cabbage is high in fiber. The surprisingly high sugar content in cabbage is what makes it so easy for this veggie to ferment in your gut.
People who had fructose malabsorption issues are told to stay away from cabbage. The best way to determine if cabbage is ok for you to eat is simply to eat it and notice if it give you symptoms a few hours later. The most common symptoms caused by cabbage is gas or bloating.
The good news:
Cabbage is very low in saturated Fat and cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Potassium, and a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, folate and manganese.
And when you slice red cabbage in half it looks like artwork (see photo above) and it has more nutrition (flavonoids) and vitamin C than it’s green counterpart.
Cabbage is relatively inexpensive, low calorie, filling and used in cooking all over the world (Russian borscht, Polish cabbage roll, Irish corned beef and cabbage, Chinese Napa cabbage stir fry, as well as German and Indian dishes)
I’m a huge cabbage lover and my favorite way to prepare it is to saute it with garlic and onions in a little bit of tomato sauce and olive oil. You can taste it’s sweetness after you caramelize it through the cooking process.
The bad news:
The only drawback of cabbage is that a large portion of its calories come from sugar and the fiber/sugar combination may cause gas in some people.
Marinara cabbage recipe:
Shredded cabbage can substitute for pasta. Simply buy pre-shredded cabbage or chop it finely.
Saute cabbage in olive, oil with onion and garlic and sprinkle with salt.
Add in a can of sugar-free pasta sauce and mix in. Add is lamb meatballs and saute until cooked through. You can also add some peas for color. ( I use previously frozen peas).
Enjoy the pasta substitute!
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.
Sorry, but, first, I have to mention a grammar error. I know Grammar Police people like me are irritating, but we can't help it (taught English for years; it's an addiction). You wrote "You can taste it’s sweetness". It's/its is one of the most common errors, but, ironically, it's one of the easiest to avoid. "It's" is a contraction, and the apostrophe takes the place of "i" in "it is." "Its" show possession and never has an apostrophe. Without the apostrophe, your phrase would read "You can taste it is sweetness," and that's clearly not what you meant. Just read any "it's" like that, and you'll see immediately whether you need "it's" or "its."
Now, on to cabbage. I adore cabbage…stuffed cabbage, steamed cabbage, creamed cabbage, etc. But I can no longer eat it cooked without gas and bloating and pain. I have IBS as a companion to my fibromyalgia. However, I can eat raw cabbage without all those nasty symptoms!
I can only assume the sugar in the cabbage is not what causes my problems with gas and bloat. I have yet to figure out, though, why the high fiber of raw cabbage doesn't affect me as badly as the cooked stuff.