 LDL-bad cholesterol is bad, but oxidized LDL may be worse. What role might our diet play? Increased fruit and vegetable consumption has been reported to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and strokes. Well maybe it's in part because of all the antioxidants in healthy plant foods preventing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. And indeed, the LDL-oxidation resistance was found to be greatest among those eating more plant-based. So that would be in addition to the decreased blood pressure and lower LDL overall in terms of beneficial effects. But you don't know if it's cause and effect until you put it to the test. Put people on a whole food plant-based diet for just three weeks and rates and extent of LDL-oxidation drop. The effects of kale on LDL-oxidation was put to the test. Kale is a best of all worlds food, low in calories, packed to the health with nutrition vitamins, minerals, anti-inflammatory compounds, anti-oxidant, phytonutrients. You name it. No surprise then, given its high antioxidant capacity, kale showed a protective effect on the oxidation of LDL, even at low concentrations. But this was in vitro, in a test tube. Kale was also put to the test in mice, but what about people? I did a video on this study on how kale juice improves coronary artery disease risk factors in men with high cholesterol. Extraordinary results, a 20% drop in LDL among the non-smokers, but they were drinking the equivalent of about 10 cups of kale a day. Still, the fact that they were able to see an improvement, even though nearly all the fiber was removed because it was just juice, it shows there does seem to be something special in the plant, but can you get the benefit just eating the stuff? Let's find out. The effects of black and red cabbage on oxidized LDL. And by black cabbage, they mean Losonado kale, also known as dinosaur Tuscan kale. They had people eat a bag of frozen kale and cabbage a day for just two weeks, which is great, because you know, you just keep it in the freezer, pre-washed, pre-chopped, just throw into any meal you're making. And got significant reductions of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and even blood sugar levels, and the antioxidant capacity of their blood went up. And so, no surprise, they demonstrated significant decrease in oxidized LDL too. Would it have been better to take that red cabbage and ferment it into sauerkraut? Red or purple cabbage, one of my favorite vegetables, packed with antioxidants. Yet, dirt sheeting seems to last forever in the fridge, and it's pretty juicy and tasty. I try to slice shreds off in any meal I'm making, but when you ferment it, not only do you add way too much salt, but you end up wiping out some of the nutrition. Here's the big spike in antioxidant capacity of your bloodstream in the hours after eating fresh red cabbage. Cut down by almost 30% if you ate the same amount in fermented form. Does cabbage have to be raw though? No, some cooking techniques may improve the antioxidant activity in kale and red cabbage. The effects of the cooking process can be positive, since cooking softens the vegetable tissues, helping your body extract the active compounds. However, cooking can also be negative, because heat treatment can degrade some of the compounds. They looked at a variety of different cooking methods, and concluded steaming may be considered the best home cooking technique to prepare kale and red cabbage, but with foods that healthy, the truly best way to prepare them is whatever way we'll get you to eat the most of them.