In its raw form, it is a good source of vitamin C. Note that the above values are for cooked Swiss chard. Like many leafy greens, Swiss chard shrinks drastically when cooked, so 1 cup of cooked Swiss chard will contain much more nutrition than 1 cup of raw Swiss chard.
What are the benefits of eating Swiss chard?
Health benefits
- Lowering blood pressure. Swiss chard has been shown to support athletic performance. ...
- Combating cancer. Swiss chard contains chlorophyll, which may be effective at blocking the cancer-causing heterocyclic amines generated when grilling foods at a high temperature.
- Managing diabetes. ...
- Preventing osteoporosis. ...
- Improving athletic performance. ...
How much vitamin K is in Swiss chard?
The basic type of swiss chard is Chard, swiss, raw, where the amount of vitamin k in 100g is 830 ug. 830 ug of vitamin k per 100g, from Chard, swiss, raw corresponds to % of the vitamin k RDA.
Is Kale and Swiss chard the same thing?
Swiss chard leaves are tender and have a taste similar to beet greens and spinach. While some may find the leaves slightly bitter, they are less vegetal in flavor than kale. The crunchy stems are slightly sweet and have a similar taste and texture with bok choy stems.
What is better Swiss chard or Kale?
Why is Swiss Chard better than Kale?
- 1.97x more vitamin A (IU) per 100g? 6116IU vs 3100IU
- 6.51% higher water content per 100g? 92.66g vs 87g
- 1.5x more riboflavin per 100g? 0.09mg vs 0.06mg
- 2.26x more pantothenic acid per 100g? 0.17mg vs 0.076mg
- 1.97x more vitamin A (RAE) per 100g? 306µg vs 155µg
- 25% more ash per 100g? ...
- 143mg more sodium per 100g? ...
- 61.54% less saturated fatty acids per 100g? ...
Is it better to eat Swiss chard raw or cooked?
Swiss chard leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. Raw Swiss chard is less bitter than cooked. A bunch of raw Swiss chard will cook to a much smaller amount. The stalks are thicker than the leaves so they take longer to cook.
Does Swiss chard lose nutrients when cooked?
Swiss chard and peppers also lose antioxidant properties in all cooking methods.
What is the healthiest way to eat Swiss chard?
Toss wilted leaves into pasta dishes. Pickle the stems for a crunchy snack. Blend fresh Swiss chard with hummus for a tasty, nutritious dip.
Is Swiss chard good for you raw?
Fast facts about Swiss chard Chard contains 3 times the recommended daily intake of vitamin K and 44 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin A. This vegetable can help to combat cancer, reduce blood pressure, and enhance performance in sports. Swiss chard can be eaten raw or cooked.
Which is healthier Swiss chard or kale?
Swiss Chard And mustard greens holds its own by having the least amount of calories and slightly more protein and calcium than kale. All four types of greens are also rich in many other nutrients, including manganese, folate, copper, choline, magnesium, potassium and vitamins E, K, B2 and B6.
Is Swiss chard healthier than spinach?
Significant Scores for Spinach Spinach comes out on top, compared to Swiss chard, in a number of nutritional components. Among them are calcium, with 1 cup of cooked spinach offering 24 percent DV compared to Swiss chard's 10 percent.
Does Swiss chard have to be cooked?
Swiss chard leaves are low in calories and nutrient dense. While you can eat young, tender chard leaves raw in salads for the full nutritional benefit, they tend to have a bitter taste and are more often cooked in order to mellow out the bitterness and make them easier to digest.
What happens if you eat too much Swiss chard?
Spinach, Beet Greens, and Swiss Chard Consume too much and you may be in for unpleasant symptoms such as kidney stones, abdominal pain, low blood pressure, tremors or convulsions, vomiting, and weak pulse.
Is Swiss chard anti inflammatory?
chard is also has an abundance of antioxidants as well as phytonutrient antioxidants. Why are these phytonutrient antioxidants so special? These antioxidants have been shown to have great anti-inflammatory properties. These phytonutrients can be found in the plant's leaves, and colorful stems.
Is it OK to eat Swiss chard every day?
Doctors and researchers assume you only consume about 120 mg of oxalate per day! 120 mg is about the amount of oxalate in just one ounce of almonds. But, a ½ cup of swiss chard has 4 to 7 times that amount – far in excess of what is considered “typical” and “tolerable” on a routine basis.
Is Swiss chard a Superfood?
Swiss chard is a nutritional powerhouse -- an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C, as well as a good source of magnesium, potassium, iron, and dietary fiber.
How do you cook Swiss chard so it's not bitter?
How do you cook Swiss chard so it isn't bitter? Removing the stems from the leaves and then properly cooking them until soft is the best way to avoid any bitterness. Swiss Chard can also be paired with some great ingredients to enhance its flavor even more.
Combating cancer
Swiss chard contains chlorophyll, which may be effective at blocking the cancer-causing heterocyclic amines generated when grilling foods at a high temperature.
Managing diabetes
Swiss chard contains an antioxidant known as alpha-lipoic acid. This has been shown to lower glucose levels, increase insulin sensitivity, and prevent oxidative stress-induced changes in patients with diabetes.
Preventing osteoporosis
Adequate vitamin K consumption can improve bone health. Vitamin K modifies bone matrix proteins, improves calcium absorption, and reduces urinary excretion of calcium.
Improving athletic performance
Dietary nitrates have been shown to improve muscle oxygenation during exercise.
Swiss Chard Nutrition
Swiss chard is a leafy green vegetable in the Amaranthaceae plant family that has the scientific name Beta vulgaris . Its name may be a bit misleading, because it actually isn’t a plant that is native to Switzerland — rather it was “discovered” by a Swiss botanist in 1753.
Types
Chard plants come in many varieties and colors, such as deep green, red, yellow, orange, purple and multicolored Swiss chard. The vibrantly colored leaves grow on top of thick, celery-like long stems.
Swiss Chard vs. Kale vs. Spinach
Calorie for calorie, compared to Swiss chard nutrition, kale offers a similar amount of vitamin K but more vitamin A and C. Kale is a cruciferous vegetable that is rich in antioxidants and vital nutrients that support detoxification, heart health, cancer prevention and brain development.
Benefits
Swiss chard nutrition is thought to contain up to 13 different types of polyphenol antioxidants alone. In 2004, researchers were also able to identify 19 different types of betaxanthin antioxidants in Swiss chard nutrition, as well as nine types of betacyanins among the different varieties of chard.
How to Cook
Swiss chard can usually be found at farmers markets and in grocery stores available throughout the year, but technically its peak season is during the summer months, from June through August. This is when you’ll most likely find the best-tasting, freshest Swiss chard, especially at local farmers markets.
Recipes
Chards can be used in recipes the same way many other greens are used, such as escarole, kale, spinach, collard greens or mustard greens. All of those make great Swiss chard substitutes, especially spinach and escarole, which also have mild flavors.
Risks, Side Effects and Interactions
While it’s a very healthy and totally edible leafy green, according to the Colorado University Food Safety Center of Excellence, “Swiss chard is often associated with the pathogens coli , Listeria, and Salmonella because the crop is a raw, fresh marketed product.”
Nutritional Similarities
Raw spinach and raw Swiss chard have the exact same scores when it comes to calories – a very low 35-41 calories per cooked cup or only 7 calories in a cup of the raw greens. They also offer similarly high amounts of fiber with about 4 grams in a 1-cup serving, cooked.
Significant Scores for Spinach
Spinach comes out on top, compared to Swiss chard, in a number of nutritional components. Among them are calcium, with 1 cup of cooked spinach offering 24 percent DV compared to Swiss chard's 10 percent. Both greens are good sources of iron, with spinach providing a bit more with 36 percent of the DV compared to chard's 22 percent.
Swiss Chard's Outstanding Stats
Dark green leaves are not the only visual indication of nutritional content in vegetables. In the colorful varieties of Swiss chard, often labeled as "rainbow chard," brightly colored stems and veins in red-purple and yellow-orange hues are evidence of betalain pigments, which are known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Classification
Chard was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus as Beta vulgaris var. cicla. Its taxonomic rank has changed many times, so it was treated as a subspecies, convariety, or variety of Beta vulgaris. (Some of the numerous synonyms are Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla (L.) W.D.J. Koch (Cicla Group), B. vulgaris subsp. cicla (L.) W.D.J. Koch var.
Etymology
The word "chard" descends from the 14th-century French carde, from Latin carduus meaning artichoke thistle (or cardoon, including the artichoke ).
Growth and harvesting
Chard is a biennial. Clusters of chard seeds are usually sown, in the Northern Hemisphere, between June and October, depending on the desired harvesting period. Chard can be harvested while the leaves are young and tender, or after maturity when they are larger and have slightly tougher stems.
Cultivars
Cultivars of chard include green forms, such as 'Lucullus' and 'Fordhook Giant', as well as red-ribbed forms such as 'Ruby Chard' and 'Rhubarb Chard'. The red-ribbed forms are attractive in the garden, but as a general rule, the older green forms tend to outproduce the colorful hybrids.
Culinary use
Fresh chard can be used raw in salads, stirfries, soups or omelets. The raw leaves can be used like a tortilla wrap. Chard leaves and stalks are typically boiled or sautéed; the bitterness fades with cooking.
Nutritional content
In a 100-gram (3.5 oz) serving, raw Swiss chard provides 84 kilojoules (20 kcal) of food energy and has rich content (> 19% of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamins A, K, and C, with 122%, 1038%, and 50%, respectively, of the DV.
The main differences between Chard and Spinach
Chard is richer in Vitamin K, and Copper, yet Spinach is richer in Folate, Manganese, Vitamin A, Iron, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, and Potassium.
Mineral Comparison
Mineral comparison score is based on the number of minerals by which one or the other food is richer. The "coverage" chart below show how much of the daily needs can be covered by 300 grams of the food
Vitamin Comparison
Vitamin comparison score is based on the number of vitamins by which one or the other food is richer. The "coverage" chart below show how much of the daily needs can be covered by 300 grams of the food
Vitamin and Mineral Summary Scores
The summary score is calculated by summing up the daily values contained in 300 grams of the product. Obviously the more the food fulfills human daily needs, the more the summary score is.
Macronutrients Comparison
Macronutrient comparison charts compare the amount of protein, total fats, and total carbohydrates in 300 grams of the food. The displayed values show how much of the daily needs can be covered by 300 grams of food.
Comparison summary table
Pay attention to the most right column. It shows the amounts side by side, making it easier to realize the amount of difference.
