Common kale, green, curly and tough, is arguably the healthiest vegetable found in a grocery store. However, it’s also an all-conquering fad that since 2010, has swept through the West Coast like a tsunami.
In two years, mentions of kale on American restaurant menus shot up by 233%. The quantity grown by American farmers increased by 57% from 2007 to 2012, while some US activists are plotting to make October 2nd national kale day. Vermont plans to honour kale with the title of state vegetable, and Whole Foods reportedly sells 22,000 bunches in its grocery stores every single day.
The list of kale related foods is enormous, including kale chips and dried kale seasoned with spices. Green kale ice cream is a hit among vegans and even kale nail polish is available.
Other kale foods include kale baked eggs, pickled kale, raw kale noodles, apple kale muffins, candy kale chips (featuring honey, sea salt, and olive oil), kale cocktail (featuring gin, kale syrup, lime juice, orange, and Italian cynar), frozen kale cubes for drinks, kale pizza dough, kale brownies, kale sauce, cheesy kale crackers, kale fudge pops, kale cookies, kale vegan spice cake, avocado and kale ice cream, kale cupcakes, and kale butter.
There’s even kale soda; a marketing genius must have realised that slapping the world kale on a soda can made consumers believe it was healthy. The actor Jake Gyllenhaal once needed to lose 30 pounds for the movie Nightcrawler; his solution was running 15 miles a day and eating nothing but kale and bubble-gum. This hype culminated with the creation of the kale-only diet (not a diet you should ever follow).
Consequently, kale is now a dirty word among hippie haters and people who distrust passing fads and trends. However, cut through the hype, and the old truth remains: kale is extremely nutritious…
…and more importantly, it’s monstrously powerful for clearing acne. Kale is even better for clear skin than the likes of broccoli.
Kale is extremely rich in acne nutrients
In the 1930s, prior to World War 2, roughly 75% of Britain’s entire food supply was shipped in via cargo boats. This became totally unsustainable once the war began. After failing miserably to invade southern England during the battle of Britain in 1940, Adolf Hitler decided to force Britain to its knees through starvation instead.
Hence, his U-boat army massively stepped up its torpedoing, and by 1941, annual food imports had halved to 14.65 million tonnes. Something had to be done, otherwise Britain would indeed become the starvation nation.
The saviour of Britain was kale. The government launched the dig for victory campaign with the tagline of “spades not ships”. Citizens were encouraged to turn gardens, public parks and allotments into gardens, to grow mountains of potatoes, carrots and other cheap but nutritious vegetables.
Kale was the program’s poster child, because as a weed, it grew extremely easily. Kale is extremely hardy since it is much less domesticated (and hence reliant on farmers) than broccoli or lettuce. Kale also survives unusually long into the cold, dark winter…
Read Annihilate Your Acne – learn how to clear your skin permanently
…but the biggest advantage of kale was its extraordinary nutrient profile. Kale is far more nutritious than even broccoli, spinach, or cabbage. That nutritional profile can help you and your acne today. 100 grams of raw kale contains…
15376IU of vitamin A (308% of the RDA) – an all-important nutrient for acne patients because it directly restrains your sebaceous glands, the glands that pump out oil (sebum) onto your skin’s surface. More vitamin A equals less blocked pores and less acne. Vitamin A also controls the production of keratin, the protein that glues dead skin cells together into pore blocking clumps.
Vitamin A can even defend against acne caused UV radiation in sunlight. The vitamin A was precisely why kale was gold dust in wartime Britain, since it helps with vision; the night time blackout made good eyesight a top priority after citizens routinely fell into ditches and ponds during the early months.
120mg of vitamin C (200%) – a cofactor needed to create collagen, the main structural protein of your skin. More collagen equals greater skin hydration and faster wound healing (and thus healing of old acne). Vitamin C also lowers stress hormones and is the main water soluble antioxidant in humans.
34mg of magnesium (8%) – deficiency in magnesium is rampant, making kale all the more useful for acne. Magnesium controls acne-causing stress hormones, regulates the neurotransmitters necessary for sleeping well, and lowers bloodstream insulin, the most important hormone behind oily skin.
An ORAC score of 1770 – the ORAC scale measures antioxidants and kale clearly has plenty for acne. Kale reportedly has over 45 different flavonoid antioxidants, joining forces with the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin (coming soon). It just defeats broccoli with its ORAC of 1510.
How kale compares to other vegetables
The strength of the nutrition alone makes kale fantastic for clear skin. Broccoli is already an acne-friendly vegetable, but kale thrashes it.
The same weight of broccoli has 12% of the RDI for vitamin A, 156% for vitamin C, and 5% for magnesium. Kale’s vitamin A content (in the form of beta-carotene) is where it really shines.
For the same acne nutrients, spinach contains 187%, 46%, and 17%. Cabbage contains 1%, 60%, and 3%. Brussel sprouts contain 15%, 141%, and 5%. Kale ranks first for acne-clearing vegetable nutrition.
Kale is also a fantastic source of calcium, with 14% per 100 grams. Calcium isn’t especially useful for acne, but as we discussed in my eBook Annihilate Your Acne, many acne patients have genetic sensitivities to the proteins and hormones found in dairy. Milk, cheese and yoghurt are the main source of calcium for most people, so many acne patients could use alternative sources.
Gram for gram, kale contains more calcium than milk. Furthermore, a human study from 1990 found that kale’s calcium was 25% better absorbed than calcium from milk. The problem with dairy is that the calcium is bound in a molecular complex with a protein called casein. Monogastric mammals like us have trouble digesting casein, so while some manage, many have a genetic inability to extract the calcium inside it.
Kale is also a highly alkalising vegetable and by reducing the body’s overall acid load, it decreases the requirement for acid neutralising minerals. Calcium is one of those minerals, as are magnesium and potassium.
Read this article and learn why vitamin A is great for oily skin
If you need an alternative calcium source that doesn’t cause acne, kale is hard to beat. Kale also contains traces of zinc (3% per 100 grams), decent amounts of potassium, (14%), and 1021% of the RDA for vitamin K1.
Kale – the greatest source of lutein
One of the great overlooked acne nutrients is arguably lutein, or its almost identical counterpart, zeaxanthin.
Lutein is a carotenoid antioxidant, a class with over 600 members, which provide yellow, orange, and red pigments to foods (pumpkins, sweet potatoes, carrots). It is a phytonutrient, compared to zinc or vitamin C, which are micronutrients. Small quantities are found in multivitamins, since lutein is critical for eye health…
…but lutein is also a stellar antioxidant, and the good news? Kale is the single best source available from a grocery store. 100 grams of raw kale contains 35571mcg of lutein/zeaxanthin, and the next best food is spinach with 15691mcg when perfectly cooked. Eggs are widely hailed for their lutein content, but one whole raw egg contains just 331mcg. Only a rare flower called nasturtium contains more lutein than kale.
Lutein heals pimples from many directions, but its best feature is being a fat-soluble antioxidant. We discuss antioxidants constantly on this website. Put simply, without antioxidants, the sebum (oil) on your face will be attacked by free radicals and produce a by-product called squalene peroxide, which blocks skin pores and directly triggers the inflammation behind acne itself. Lutein is especially potent because squalene peroxide is a lipid peroxide, which only fat soluble antioxidants like lutein can destroy.
ONE: this study found that both lutein and zeaxanthin prevented lipid peroxidation caused by free radicals. They specifically protected against UV damage to the skin from sunlight.
TWO: this double-blind, placebo-controlled trial from 2013 fed 117 patients 10mg or 20mg of lutein for 12 weeks. Blood lutein levels significantly increased after 12 weeks. There was a large drop in malondialdehyde, the most commonly used biomarker of lipid peroxides. Inflammation levels fell after 12 weeks too, as measured by c-reactive protein. The scientists concluded that “lutein supplementation reduce biomarkers of CVD risk via decreased lipid peroxidation”.
THREE: we also have this study on kale itself. Rats were fed a diet containing no kale, raw kale, or cooked kale. After 21 days, the kale-gobbling rats had substantially lower malondialdehyde and lipid peroxidation by-products. The scientists concluded: “diet with kale, both raw and cooked, efficiently inhibited the lipid peroxidation process in rats’ organisms.”
It gets better for us acne patients too. While all of kale’s carotenoid antioxidants will prevent acne to some extent, lutein preferentially builds itself into your face.
This massive review compiled many animal and human studies and found that lutein is especially strong at protecting skin cells from light induced oxidative damage. By dining on kale, you are basically building a strong antioxidant armour directly into your skin.
Similarly, lutein also accumulates in high concentrations in the macular, the centre of the eye’s retina, where it is an efficient absorber of blue light. Hence, lutein can protect against light-induced oxidative damage, which is believed to play a role in age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
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There’s also this study, where Alzheimer’s patients have lower levels of lutein in their red blood cells. Lutein isn’t the only useful phytonutrient in kale; it contains many sulphurous compounds which, when digested, generate healthy by-products such allyl-isothiocyanate, phenethyl-isothiocyanate, and benzyl-isothiocyanate, which are all linked to cancer prevention.
This study found that regularly drinking kale juice could increase gluthathione levels, an indigenous antioxidant which countless acne patients lack. The sulphurous compounds are likely responsible; the human body requires sulphur to manufacture glutathione. The study concluded that overall, kale was an antioxidant machine.
Kale is also a natural source of indole-3-carbinol, the parent compound of the popular estrogen-reducing acne supplement DIM. Like broccoli, kale is a great source of sulforaphane, which slashes inflammatory biomarkers linked to acne such as TNF-a (see here). Chronic inflammation is the main cause of acne, and acne-prone skin samples consistently have elevated levels of TNF-a.
The truth about goitrogens in kale
If you’re getting excited about kale for acne, then there’s plenty of people who’d love to dampen your enthusiasm. There’s a whole subsection of nutritionists who fear kale and any cruciferous vegetables.
You see, broccoli, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, bok choy, and mustard greens contain compounds called goitrogens, which are said to block the uptake of iodine into the thyroid and the production of vital thyroid hormones. It’s argued that those with thyroid problems shouldn’t even dream of eating kale, and that their entire superfood status is a massive injustice.
The truth is that goitrogens do exist and at high intakes, they do block iodine uptake. Some animal studies have negatively affected thyroid function using goitrogens in kale specifically…
…but the good news is that goitrogens only wreak havoc in certain circumstances, such as…
An iodine deficient diet – iodine deficiency is a global pandemic. Soils are depleted of iodine worldwide and many of us neglect seafood, the biggest source, in favour of industrially produced chicken and beef. The small iodine blocking effect of goitrogens is only problematic if you’re getting very little iodine anyway. You can get iodine from seaweed, eggs, strawberries, and seafood.
Massive quantities – apparently one woman ended up in a hypothyroid induced coma after feasting on kilograms of raw bok choy every day. There’s no need to eat that many cruciferous vegetables, for either health or acne.
Cooked raw – cooking is the easiest way to neuter the goitrogen problem of kale. Among cruciferous vegetables generally, steaming reduces the goitrogen content by 30%, boiling by 65%, and boiling and discarding the water by a massive 90%.
Realistically, you only need to minimise kale (though not outlaw entirely) if you have existing thyroid problems.
Even then, iodine supplementation might solve those problems anyway, making kale safe once more. Whether goitrogens cause acne has never been proven.
Pregnant women are extra sensitive to goitrogens as a healthy baby requires particularly sharp thyroid functioning. However, the danger zone quantities are still too high, unless you’re scoffing kale raw. This study fed humans another goitrogen-loaded vegetable, raw broccoli sprouts, and noted no abnormal thyroid activity after 7 days.
Essentially, the goitrogens in kale are only a minor threat, and their danger can be averted with a small amount of planning.
Eat kale, acquire health
What’s more, kale has numerous interesting health benefits that have nothing to do with acne.
One is kale’s ability to lower levels of LDL, or the “bad” cholesterol, and the mechanism is extremely interesting. The human liver uses cholesterol as a building block to produce bile acids, specialized molecules that help to digest fat through a process called emulsification. Whenever you eat cheese, butter or chocolate, these bile acids are released into the intestine, where they ready the fat for degradation with enzymes and absorption into the bloodstream.
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Like all cruciferous vegetables, kale is rich in fiber. The certain types in kale can bind with bile acids and prevent them from interacting with fat molecules, causing them to linger in the intestine where they are eventually removed. Now that sounds like bad news at first, interrupting your body’s normal digestion of fats…
…but instead, it triggers your body to manufacture more bile acids to compensate. To achieve that, your body must draw upon its store of cholesterol, lowering your blood levels.
Kale therefore achieves through mere nutrition what millions of people seek through strong pharmaceutical drugs like Statins.
One study found that the cholesterol-lowering power of kale was comparable to the prescription drug cholestyramine. Kale bound up to 42% of bile acids; only collard greens, which bound 46%, performed better.
In this 2008 study, scientists supplemented some hypercholesterolemic men with kale juice, and after 3 months, LDL cholesterol levels had fallen by 10%. Furthermore, levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol had risen by 27%.
Conclusion – possibly the best green vegetable for acne
The old saying “there’s no smoke without fire” fits kale like a glove. The mania was fully justified until the hippies took over.
An all kale diet is a waste of time, but adding a serving of kale to your daily diet will feed your skin numerous acne-clearing nutrients like vitamin A and C, while casually protecting your heart.
The final question is how to cook it. Every cooking method will deplete the vitamin C count slightly, but studies show that steaming preserves the acne nutrition the best. I advise you to steam kale moderately to lower the goitrogen count, and also improve the taste, but skip boiling, because it can slash the vitamin C content by up to 70%. One study found steaming improved the cholesterol-lowering abilities too.
Organic kale is superior since kale consistently appears on the annual “dirty dozen” list of pesticide-contaminated foods. If organic kale is unaffordable or unavailable, then the sheer volume of nutrition will still outweigh the pesticides and herbicides for a net acne benefit.
Finally, there are two main varieties to consider: curly kale, the standard variety, and dinosaur kale.
Both are bursting with acne nutrition but dino kale is even better; the minerals are more bioavailable due to dino kale containing less oxalates, acids which bind with minerals like magnesium and calcium. Dino kale is quite uncommon, but keep your eyes open!
NEXT: forget creams and moisturisers – discover the ultimate acne-clearing diet
Thanks for reading!
Great post! Have nice day ! :)