Last week marked the start of our summer CSA distribution. Among the loot in our weekly vegetable pick up was two heads of bok choy.
Until last year, bok choy was one of those vegetables that I didn’t have the first clue what to do with. Thank goodness for the Breville, that’s all I can say. Bok Choy Lemonade anyone? No? Just me?
It was right about the time that I started to love this member of the cabbage family that I heard about an 88 year old woman who nearly died from eating too much bok choy.
Turns out she was eating 2 – 3 lbs of bok choy a day for several months. And here I thought drinking bok choy juice was impressive.
So consider this your official disclaimer. Bok choy is good and it’s good for you too – but that saying “too much of a good thing” apparently applies here. DO NOT EAT 2 – 3 POUNDS OF BOK CHOY A DAY FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. Please simply stick to the occasional stir fry or pile of steamed BC goodness. Even eating it raw seems to be ok too,
especially when you slather it with homemade hummus.
Be warned that you are more likely to OD on both bok choy and hummus when you eat this way – but what the heck. It’s worth the risk.
What I remember from the article was that the 88yr old Chinese woman was eating vast amounts of RAW bok choy. If you cook it, you can eat heaps or if raw, have small amounts.
Found it!
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/05/19/4380005-back-away-from-the-bok-choy-maam
As long as anything less than 2 – 3 lbs qualifies as “small amounts” – I really do love it raw.
Hmmmm……never tried Bok Choy……
Yeah, I’d heard about that lady, and I was AMAZED that the docs figured that out – I mean, how random is that? We belong to a CSA that specializes in greens, and every week, we get a huge box filled with stuff I’d never heard of. Bok choy is the least of it. Try, chrysanthemum greens, tatsoi, santosai, mizuna, mibuno, komatsuna, red mustard, spinach mustard… We quickly figured out which ones are suitable for green smoothies and down the hatch, baby.
Our CSA from last year had a bunch of crazy greens too! I loved it and it has made me unafraid of just about all things green in salads, stirfrys and more!
oh my gosh I always just use in stir fry or with eggs.
never thought to slather it and bite!
NICELY DONE!
Wow! Who knew? I do remember reading in one of Victoria Boutenko’s books (Green for Life, Green Revolution, etc) that you need to change up the greens that you eat. She says that you can get too much of the alkaloids of that particular green which will eventually accumulate in your body and give you the symptoms of poisoning. She’s saying that all greens have alkaloids, each different, and that in moderation it is helpful, but harmful when you eat too much. (8th bullet point– http://greensmoothiesblog.com/guidelines-green-smoothies/)
So regardless of loving one vegetable or not, it might be prudent to have variety.
Hmmm… when was my last green smoothie? I might need to get back into that.
I recently had bok choy in a stir-fry… so yummy!
Nic, you read my mind! I just checked her book out of the library again this afternoon to write about this very thing in a future post about swiss chard! I couldn’t remember exactly why was good to mix up your greens, too funny you should comment on this very thing.
Many years ago I ate spinach everyday for about a year. I got horribly ill and could not swallow. It was so bad I thought I had throat and mouth cancer. Went to a throat specialist and he asked me what I ate and he told me I had bari bari. He told me to back off the spinach and he prescribed me phamacutical zinc plus vitamin C. I started feeling better within hours of taking the suppliments. So yes be careful with your greens.
Oh yeah, he said I darn near killed myself eating too much spinach. And of course told me that even too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
Rose! What a story! Eat greens with care, not reckless abdandon… check! So glad you’re here to tell the tale.