On 04/12/19 15:48, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
On 04/12/19 10:12, TimW wrote:
Can a human being digest raw kale? or would we need four stomachs and
the ability to chew the cud? Should I blanche the leaves and refresh
them before shredding and dressing or go hardcore vegetarian and just
chew and chew?

We can digest cellulose to some extent, but it does vary between
individuals. Surprisingly, the older we are the more we can digest it!
https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/25/8/805.full.pdf

It's actually more whether we can break the cell walls that matters.
For some reason, we can do that for leaf vegetables like kale but
not grass (leaves).

But isn't the cell wall made (mainly) of cellulose in green plants? I
always assumed that chewing the cud was just an additional stage in the
mechanical breakdown of cell walls, particularly for animals which
depend on the breakdown of cellulose for a good part of their
nutrition.It's an interesting point, though; would we be able to digest
more cellulose - in the absence of specific bacteria for that purpose -
if we chewed the green plants more thoroughly?

To Jenny M Benson: try cavallo nero. Marrowfat kale (which I was fed
as a child) is fit only for cattle, but curly kale is OK and cavallo
nero is better.

Better for what? A "green" alternative to Kevlar, perhaps? I much prefer
curly kale.

On an unrelated matter, but as you often eat different veg, have you
eaten mangold wirzels, and if so, what did they taste like?

--

Jeff