KALE, SUPER FOOD (EYES)

Kale could perhaps be called an ideal eye food, having 500 times more lutein+zeaxanthin (these are in the human eye macula) than papaya, and 3 times more than spinach. Kale has more beta carotene than carrots even and than spinach too.   It also has 3.3 g of protein per 100 g, while spinach has 2.9, but spinach is higher quality protein.  Kale aminoacid score of 92 is higher than the 83 for broccoli, 85 for milk, 86 for lentils. It takes 3 minutes to cook kale with a pressure cooker, and that makes it far easier to eat and digest.

Source of this info is the Vitamins section (click on "more details" to get the full list) of the links below:

select 100 g for comparing LUTEIN+ZEAXANTHIN content

spinach ► 12197 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2461/2

kale ► 39551 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2626/2

broccoli ► 1403 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2356/2

carrots ► 256 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2383/2

tomato ► 125 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2682/2

papaya ► 75 mcg ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1985/2

Beta carotene (also good for the eye) in spinach (5626 mcg), carrots (8285 mcg), kale (9226 mcg) is far higher than in papaya (276 mcg) or tomato (449 mcg).  Kale has more beta carotene than carrots, did you know that?  Kale basically trumps carrots from the point of view of beta carotene and the carotenoids in the human macula, lutein and zeaxanthin.  Tomatoes have 2500 mcg of lycopene, carrots 1 mcg, Papaya and spinach 0 mcg.  So tomatoes are key for lycopene. Scientists have discovered that carotenoids like lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin are key to good eye health.  Lycopene also helps the heart a lot.  ►  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12134711.

For more on lutein and zeaxanthin effects on visual system development early in life, see ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699988/

The human macula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macula_of_retina) is known to contain three yellow carotenoids, 3R,3’R-zeaxanthin, 3R,3’S (meso)-zeaxanthin, and (3R,3’R,6’R)-lutein.

Lycopene and other dietary carotenoids were detected in high concentrations in ciliary body and retinal pigment epithelium ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12424324

Spinach has more omega 3 per 100 g than avocados even.

Spinach nutrition data (select 100 g) ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2626/2

Avocado nutrition data (select 100 g) ► http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1844/2

Spinach also has 7-8 times more Magnesium than tomatoes, carrots.  Kale has 3.5 times more Magnesium than tomatoes, carrots.  Magnesium is key to a healthy body. :)  Spinach has 9 times more Iron than tomatoes and carrots too.  :)  Iron is key also. :)  One problem with spinach though is high oxalic acid content if you eat it raw (if you steam or cook it, the oxalic acid is no longer there for the most part), so it's not recommended to eat RAW spinach daily a lot. :)  http://www.2ndchance.info/oxalate-dogChai2005oxalatecontentfoods.pdf explains that lentils for example have the lowest amount of oxalate among legumes, and it's much lower than RAW spinach per 100 grams. However, cooking spinach won't affect lutein, beta carotene, vitamin E, zeaxanthin, it actually can increase those slightly.  I do suggest eating kale, rather than spinach, as it has more omega 3 fatty acids, more lutein, more beta carotene.  Spinach is too rich in oxalate.

Note :  conventional kale and spinach have far more pesticides than organic ones, so cooking does help to reduce pesticide content, besides making it far easier to eat - especially kale.