Cabbage. The word does not exactly inspire orgasms of culinary delight.
We wouldn't turn down some nice sauerkraut to top off a Reuben, but cabbage is generally bland and tastless when it hasn't been fermented in its own juices, drowned in vinegar, and covered in deli mustard.
Still, the health brigade will tell you that this relative of broccoli is chockfull of good-for-you benefits like glucosinolates, which are touted to do everything from prevent cancer to lower cholesterol.
According to some old wives telling tales in the Ukraine, there's another health benefit of the humble cabbage - at least that's what they told actress Olga Kurylenko while she was growing up.
She stopped in to Conan last night to stump for her new film Vampire Academy, which hits theaters February 7.
"You say you spent most of your childhood eating cabbage. What did they say to you to get you to eat cabbage?" Conan queried.
"So basically for us it was, well for girls especially," said Kurylenko. "They say that if you eat cabbage you... you grow, ugh... you get very talented!" she said, holding her hands out as if she was clasping two large succulent "cabbages."
"Your breasts will grow large?"
"Yes...So, I just kept eating and eating cabbage. I still keep eating it. I'm not sure it's working though."
Kurylenko is undeniably gorgeous but not particularly busty, still, she keeps up her cabbage habit.
"I'll keep eating it 'til I die; hope dies the last."
We feel you Olga, we feel you. But if you're going the all natural route, maybe find out what Sofia Vergara's been eating all these years. Couldn't hurt.
You can contact Rebecca Dittmar, Arts & Culture Editor/Food Blog Editor at [email protected].
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