Pak Choi, also known as Bok Choy, Pecking Cabbage or Chinese Cabbage is a vegetable most associated with Chinese cuisine.
It is highly nutritious and packed with health, fitness and fat loss enhancing nutrients. These nutrients have been suggested to aid recovery from sports and exercise injuries by strengthening cell walls and reducing inflammation.
Here are plenty more benefits of including this food in your nutritional strategy:
Health and Fitness Benefits of Pak Choi
- One of the stand out health benefits of Pak Choi is it’s ability to aid healthy digestion due to the quality of dietary fibre it provides per serving.
- Contains powerful antioxidants and phyto-nutrients to help destroy free radicals around the body to protect cells and reduce inflammation.
- It is a brilliant source of vitamin C, which helps us to fight off infection and keep are immune systems robust.
- Pak Choi provides an awesome source of vitamin K to help keep our bones healthy and maintained, whilst also allowing them to develop strongly and efficiently throughout our lifetime .
- Pak Choi also provides a generous amount of calcium to add to bone protection and maintenance. A 70 gram cooked portion of Pak Choi can provide as much calcium as a 125 ml glass of full fat milk.
Fat Loss Benefits of Pak Choi
100 grams of Pak Choi provides just 13 calories – this is obviously a great food to eat if we want to feel full and still drop body fat.
Nutritional Information for Pak Choi
Pak Choi is a great source of vitamins B2, B6, C, A, K, beta carotene, folic acid, iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, thiamin, niacin, phosphorus, potassium, selenium and zinc.
1 cup (70 grams) of Pak Choi provides the following:
9 calories | 1.5 grams carbohydrate | 1.1 grams protein | 0.14 grams of fat | 0.7 grams of dietary fibre | 3128 UI vitamin A | 31.5 mg vitamin C | 0.35 mg niacin | 0.06 mg pantothenic acid | 0.14 mg vitamin B6 | 46 mcg folic acid | 31.8 mcg vitamin K | 74 mg calcium | 0.56 mg iron | 13 mg magnesium | 26 mg phosphorus | 176 mg potassium | 46 mg sodium | 0.13 zinc
This food has an inflammatory rating of 63 – which categorises it as mildly anti-inflammatory. This means that Pak Choi can help to reduce instances of joint pain, allergies and premature aging by working to reduce inflammation.
Serving Ideas for Pak Choi
Pak Choi is fairly versatile and there are several serving suggestions to help crank up your nutritional content at meal times:
- Pak Choi can be eaten raw and makes a great addition to salads or sandwiches.
- Pak choi can be added to stir fry’s and tastes amazing when heated. This is often the most common way that this vegetable is used all over the world.
- It can be added to stews and casseroles.
- Add it to soups shredded or whole, whatever you prefer.
- It mixes particularly well together with cabbage, mushrooms, onions, chilies, ginger and garlic.
- Serve it alongside meats such as beef and chicken.