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Killer kale. (Wikipedia)
We've known it was time for a kale backlash for awhile, even before anyone read Jennifer Berman's piece in The New York Times, about how her doctor diagnosed her with hypothyroidism and told her not to eat 2013's trendiest ruffage. Somehow this landed Ms. Berman in some sort of Sleeper-like reality, where she discovered everything that was good for her (vegetables, non-fluoride toothpastes, brushing after meals, soy, flax,) was actually bad, and vice versa. ("You'd be better off with chocolate and cola," her doctor jeered when she told him about juicing carrots and celery.)
Sure, this wave of anti-Kaleism (which somehow also include kale advocates?) could be dismissed as anti-trend proselytizing, which can be just as annoyingly preachy as the first wave of food fad devotees. But consider this post from Shape, which admittedly had a pretty skeptical take on the whole killer kale phenomenon:
“Very high intakes of cruciferous vegetables…have been found to cause hypothyroidism (insufficient thyroid hormone) in animals. There has been one case report of an 88-year-old woman developing severe hypothyroidism and coma following consumption of an estimated 1.0 to 1.5 kg/day of raw bok choy for several months."
Yes, as the piece points out, that amount is equal to eating 15+ cups a day of kale. And yes, most things, in large enough quantities, will make you stop breathing. And yes, this kale thing seems only to be a problem for people with hypothyroidism.
Still, at least one person has died from eating kale, so feel free to lord that over your smug Juice Press cleansers come Fashion Week.
