Did you know today is not only National Cabbage Day, it's World Cabbage Day. Cabbages are members of the brassica family that also includes sprouts, cauliflower, kale and turnips. Mark Twain once said, “Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” Of the following four statements about cabbage, which are true? (1.) At one time, cabbage was required eating for sailors. (2.) Russians eat the most cabbage per person. (3.) Cooked cabbage has little nutrition. (4.) Cooked cabbage produces hydrogen sulfate.
Answer:
Cabbage has been eaten for many centuries in Europe. It was brought to America by French explorer Jacques Cartier in the 1500's. Was cabbage ever required eating for sailors? Yes. Famed explorer James Cook was one of the first ship captains to recognize that sailors whose diet lacked fresh fruit and vegetables could get scurvy, a disease that killed many sailors in those times. Cook always sailed with lots of cabbage, mostly pickled cabbage, which he insisted the sailors eat. Scurvy was never a problem on his ships because the cabbage contained lots of vitamin C. In one incident involving Captain Cook's ship, a huge storm caused the ship to roll violently. Many crewmen were injured. To save them from gangrene, the ship's doctor made poultices of cabbage to apply to their wounds.
Statement two says, per person, Russians eat more cabbage than other nationalities. And that's true, although one source says Romania is number one. China produces nearly half of the world's cabbage while Russia consumes the most per person. The average Russian eats about 44 pounds of cabbage a year. That compares to the 8.6 pounds eaten by Americans.
Raw cabbage is rich in vitamin C. It's also high in dietary fiber, vitamin K, folate, potassium, manganese, vitamin A, thiamine, vitamin B6, calcium and iron. Cabbage is credited with keeping the digestive tract and colon in a healthy condition, although eating too much can cause bloating. How about cooked cabbage? Does the cooking process eliminate that nutritional benefit? While cooking does lower some nutritional value, half a cup of cooked cabbage still has about a third of the daily requirement for vitamin C, so statement three is false.
Statement four says cooked cabbage produces hydrogen sulfate, and that's true. It's the main reason many people don't like cooked cabbage. When cabbage is cooked, the sulfur that it contains multiplies. The longer it's cooked, the more sulfur it produces. To lessen that problem, cook cabbage quickly in an open pan. Americans don't cook cabbage that much. Cabbage is used mostly for coleslaw and sauerkraut. We talk of a head of cabbage or lettuce, and that's because they are often about the size of a human head. But that's not all. The word “cabbage” is an Anglicized form of the French word "caboche", which means “head".
