Kale: The Most Popular Ingredient In Your Pantry

Many types of superfoods are available for consumers and kale is one of them. Kale is considered as the hottest superfood over the past few years.

You can find it in your baby food, vitamins, supplements, and tons of new clean label food and beverage products. The popularity of the green plant has even gone past food. For example, even some nail polish brands are infused with kale essence to strengthen nails supposedly.

Kale-Infused Products Show Increase In Sales

According to a market analysis conducted by Nielsen for MarketWatch, kale is being infused into snacks, pasta sauce, sausages, and even pet food. You can also find it in your favorite desserts like frozen yogurt and even cakes. The sales of kale-infused vitamins and supplements, for instance, grew by as much as 125% over the last year.

While kale-infused products are very popular, consumers should not be too swayed. For example, many companies add a small amount of kale in their products even if they are obviously junk foods to look like they are healthy. Unfortunately, kale is used as a marketing ploy to give unhealthy food a health halo.

Marketers Using It To Their Full Advantage

It is not only junk foods that use the green plant as a marketing ploy. Many supplements appear to use kale as ornaments in marketing their products. Kale powders, for example, encourage people to get kale in powder form thus defeating the purpose of eating the real thing.

The idea of taking it in powder or pill form might be enticing to people who are not a big fan of this leafy green. However, they are devoid of fiber resulting in a lot of missing nutrition.

Should You Eat The Real Thing Or Not?

According to Kristin Kirkpatrick from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, the addition of kale in food products does not mean that you are getting a full serving of this leafy green. Most of these kale-infused products are often processed with a lot of oil, salt, and sugar to make them taste better than the unadulterated ones.

In conclusion, the best way to get your fix of this superfood is to eat the green vegetable itself. While kale-infused products are an excellent way to slightly supplement your daily needs, they are not enough to meet your daily requirements. Prepare kale in salads, stir-fry, and slaws to get the most out of it.

Inspired by www.marketwatch.com