Turnips are tubers that are beneficial for human, here we will talk about health benefits of turnips in human diet. This is a vegetable plant that is widely known to the benefits of many people.
In fact, if they know the benefits of turnips, they can fall in love with the turnips. If you want to find out more about turnips, here we review in detail in the article below.
What Is A Turnip?
Turnips are single family vegetables with cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts. Although commonly consumed are tubers, but these plants also have leaves and shoots that are edible and have high nutrition.
Ordinary leaves and turnips are present in European, Asian and East Asian cuisines. the most delicious and healthy are the small turnips that are young, tender, and quite sweet and very tasty, added to the vegetable salad.
If it’s old, the turnips have a different taste, the texture is woody and rather hard.
Turnips have the color of white flesh with the tinge of purplish and pink. The outer color of the turnips varies and this depends on how much it absorbs sunlight.
The shape of the tuber is like a cone but some are round or like sweet potatoes. Turnips have a maximum size of up to 1 kg. Usually, the turnip harvest season is when autumn or spring comes.
Are turnips beneficial for health? This is delicious food that is well sauteed and eaten as a side dish. Although the roots are widely used, green leaves are healthier and have more nutrients up to several times more than the bulbs themselves.
This is good if used as a substitute for potatoes because turnips only have 1/3 calories compared to potatoes.
There is one more tuber that is almost the same as this one, this is rutabaga. Rutabaga is a cross between radish and cabbage, it has a larger size with a sweeter taste.
Another Name for Turnips
The local name for turnips is “shalgam, Tella dumpa, telugu, knol khol, Navil kosu, salgam, shalgom, and shalgom. The name of this turnips is the name of several regions in India. While the name of the turnips in other countries will be different.
Amazing Health Benefits of Turnips
Radish is one of the healthy root vegetables consumed because it is low in calories. Almost the same as the health benefits of sweet potatoes, here we look at some of the benefits of turnips for health.
1. Good for preventing cancer
Turnips are vegetables that are high in phytochemical content, antioxidants, which are useful for reducing the risk of cancer. Turnips contain components called glucosinolates which function to reduce cancer.
Glucosinolates are chemicals that can split into two components, these are indoles and isothiocyanates. This component is useful for improving the performance of the liver in destroying toxins and having a carcinogen effect that inhibits tumor cell growth.
So, don’t ignore these tubers, put them in your daily diet to get extraordinary benefits in preventing breast cancer cells, colon cancer, and rectum cancer.
2. Good for cardiovascular health
The high vitamin K content in turnips is very useful as an anti-inflammatory. This anti-inflammatory can maintain heart health such as inhibiting heart attacks, strokes, and other heart diseases.
In addition, turnip is a good source of folate, its use is to protect the cardiovascular system.
3. Useful for bone health
Furthermore, the health benefits of turnips are strengthen the bones because they contain calcium and manganese. If you diligently consume turnips, you will be far from joint problems, bone loss, and prevent arthritis.
Turnips are also the best source of calcium, an important mineral in maintaining bone health.
4. Useful for digestion
Green turnips contain more fiber. Fiber functions for digestive health and the disposal of waste from the body. The content of glucosinolates in turnip is also useful for killing the Helicobacter pylori bacteria in the intestine.
5. Useful for the lungs
A person who is deficient in vitamin A can cause inflammation. Smoking is an activity that produces carcinogens, thereby reducing vitamin A levels in the body.
Quitting smoking is the best thing, but consuming turnips routinely and regularly is useful for fighting carcinogens.
6. Turnips prevent Atherosclerosis
Many free radicals in the tube can cause serious health problems. Among them are clumping of platelets, oxidation of malignant cholesterol and eventually causing diseases such as atherosclerosis.
This is a bad condition for health because it can damage blood vessels. Turnip’s root contains nutrients such as vitamin E, vitamin C, which all function as antioxidants to fight free radicals.
Someone who has experienced a health problem like this is highly recommended to consume turnips regularly, this can prevent the development of the disease.
7. Treating common diseases
Consuming turnips regularly can also provide benefits to treat other diseases such as less hunger, hemorrhoids. In fact, turnips can also treat kidney stones if consumed since the beginning of kidney stone growth.
8. Lose weight
Why can turnips lose weight? Because these vegetables contain little calories and are high in fiber. Fiber not only cleanses fat in the intestine but is also useful for increasing the body’s metabolism, controlling weight and nourishing the large intestine.
9. Treat asthma
The health benefits of turnips are also good for treating asthma. The anti-inflammatory content and vitamin C play a role in treating asthma. Research recognizes that asthma patients who are given radish regularly can relieve the disease.
10. Prevent body odor
Body odor is a common thing, especially when entering summer. One way to get rid of body odor is to consume turnips regularly.
11. Increases immunity
With various nutrients, turnips provide an important role in the body’s immunity. One antioxidant named beta-carotene, it functions to produce healthy cell membranes so that the body has the power to fight various infections that occur.
12. Good for eye health
Among the nutrients that function for the eye and get in turnips are lutein and carotenoid. Both support eye health and prevent diseases such as cataracts and macular degeneration.
13. Antioxidants
These bulbs are rich in antioxidants, including vitamin A, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin E, and beta-carotene. Besides this, turnips also contain complex phytonutrients, it works to stimulate antioxidant activity.
The high antioxidant activity makes it effective for fighting free radicals (the cause of cell damage).
Turnips Health Benefits for Skin
Turnips are tuber vegetables that are rich in minerals such as copper and vitamin C, vitamin A, and beta carotene which are very useful for the skin. So, taking turnips regularly is useful for skin health and beauty.
Below we see some health benefits of turnips for skin.
14. Brighten the skin
Turnips have the ability to keep your skin bright and smooth. This is thanks to the content of vitamin A and vitamin C which acts to remove dead skin cells.
15. Anti-aging
Furthermore, the health benefits of turnips are anti-aging. As a good source of antioxidants, of course turnips are very useful for fighting free radicals (the cause of premature aging).
To get healthy skin, and eliminate signs of aging such as wrinkles and fine lines we are encouraged to consume turnips every day.
Turnips Benefits for Hair
Earlier we already knew the benefits of turnips for skin health, now we see health benefits of turnips for hair. If you want to get healthy and beautiful hair, then consume the turnips regularly.
We know that turnips are equipped with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that are good for hair health. Below are some of the benefits of turnips for hair.
16. Healthy hair
Someone who diligently consumes turnips will have shiny black hair. One of the benefits of turnips is to increase your hair color. This is thanks to the high copper content in turnips. Copper acts to form melanin, it is a pigment that gives hair color.
Turnips are also high in antioxidants, vitamin E, vitamin C, lutein, beta-carotene, and zeaxanthin, all of which play a role in maintaining healthy hair.
Nutrition Facts of Turnips
The nutritional content of the turnips is very complete. It is rich in vitamins such as vitamins A, K, C, B1, E, B3, B6, B5, B2 and rich in folic acid and various minerals including fiber, magnesium, potassium, iron, calcium, and copper.
In addition, turnips are also a source of phosphorus, omega-3 fatty acids, and protein. To be clearer, below we include a nutrition table for turnips.
| TURNIPS NUTRITION VALUE PER 100 G | ||
|---|---|---|
| PRINCIPLE | NUTRIENT VALUE | PERCENTAGE OF RDA |
| Energy | 28 Kcal | 1.5% |
| Carbohydrates | 6.43 g | 5% |
| Protein | 0.90 g | 1.5% |
| Total Fat | 0.10 g | <1% |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg | 0% |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.8 g | 5% |
| VITAMINS | ||
| Folates | 15 µg | 4% |
| Niacin | 0.400 mg | 2.5% |
| Pantothenic acid | 0.200 mg | 4% |
| Pyridoxine | 0.090 mg | 7% |
| Riboflavin | 0.030 mg | 2.5% |
| Thiamin | 0.040 mg | 4% |
| Vitamin A | 0 IU | 0% |
| Vitamin C | 21 mg | 35% |
| Vitamin E | 0.03 mg | <1% |
| Vitamin K | 0.1 µg | <1% |
| ELECTROLYTES | ||
| Sodium | 39 mg | 2.5% |
| Potassium | 233 mg | 5% |
| MINERALS | ||
| Calcium | 30 mg | 3% |
| Copper | 0.085 mg | 9% |
| Iron | 0.30 mg | 4% |
| Magnesium | 11 mg | 2.5% |
| Manganese | 0.134 mg | 6% |
| Zinc | 0.27 mg | 2% |
| PHYTO-NUTRIENTS | ||
| Carotene-ß | 0 µg | — |
| Carotene-α | 0 µg | — |
| Lutein-zeaxanthin | 0 µg | — |
Calories
Radish is a low-calorie vegetable. In a cup of raw radish only contains 36 calories. If you follow a 1500-calorie diet, the amount of cup fills 2.5% of your daily intake. However, if cooked, the calories will be smaller, which is 30 cal with 4 grams of sugar.
Fiber
The function of fiber is to provide a full feeling quickly so you don’t need a lot of food to fill up. This will reduce the portion of your calories.
In a cup of radish already contains as much as 5 grams of fiber, if boiled the fiber is 4 grams, this is 16% of our daily needs. Women are recommended to consume 25 grams of fiber per day and 28 grams for men a day.
