Bok Choy

Bok choy, also known as leafy chinese cabbage, is one of the popular mainland crops in china, philippines, vietnam and other oriental regions. At the same time, this humble brassica family vegetable has captured popularity even in the western world for its sweet, succulent nutritious leaves and stalks.

In structure, bok choy resembles collards, and could be described as a non-heading cabbage (acephala group). It is basically a small plant which grows upright from the ground with smooth white romaine lettuce like stalks, which spread at the end to fine, glossy green, oval or round leaves. Fully grown-up plant may reach about 12-18 inches in length. Brassica campestris group can be further categorized according to the color of the petioles in its leaves. White petioled varieties include joi choi, pak-choy white, prize choi, lei choi, taisai, canton pak choiaetc. Green petioled types are chinese pak choi green, mei qing choiaetc.

Bok choy is one of the popular very low calorie, leafy vegetable. Nonetheless, it is a very rich source of many vital phyto-nutrients, vitamins, minerals and health-benefiting anti-oxidants.

100 g of bok choy carries just 13 calories. It is one of the recommended vegetables in the zero calorie or negative calorie category of food items, which when eaten would add no extra calories into the body but facilitate calorie burns and reduction of body weight.

As in other brassica family vegetables, bok choy too contains certain anti-oxidant plant chemicals such as thiocyanates, indole-3-carbinol, lutein, zea-xanthin, sulforaphane and isothiocyanates. Together with dietary fiber and vitamins, these compounds help to protectagainst breast, colon, and prostate cancers and help reduce ldl or "bad cholesterol" levels in the blood.

Fresh pak choi is an excellent source of water-soluble antioxidant, vitamin-c (ascorbic acid). 100 g provides 45 mg or 75 % of daily requirements of vitamin c. Regular consumption of foods rich in vitamin c helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free radicals.

Bok-choy has more vitamin a, carotenes, and other flavonoid polyphenolic anti-oxidants than cabbage, cauliflower, etc. Just 100 g of fresh bokchoy leaves provide 4468 iu or 149% of daily-required levels vitamin a.

Pak choi is a very good source of vitamin k, provides about 38% of rda levels. Vitamin-k has a potential role in the bone metabolism by promoting osteotrophic activity in bone cells. Hence, enough vitamin k in the diet makes your bone stronger, healthier and delay osteoporosis. Further, vitamin-k also has been found to have an established role in curing alzheimer's disease patients by limiting neuronal damage in their brain.

Fresh bok choy is vital source of b-complex vitamins such as pyridoxine (vitamin b6), riboflavin, pantothenic acid (vitamin b5), pyridoxine, and thiamin (vitamin b-1). These vitamins are essential in the sense that our body requires them from external sources to replenish.

Further, this leafy vegetable is a moderate source of minerals, particularly calcium, phosphorous, potassium, manganese, iron and magnesium. Potassium is an important electrolyte in the cell and body fluids that helps regulate heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is required for the red blood cell formation.