The part of the cauliflower that you eat is the plant’s flower. The leaves that surround it are also edible but usually end up discarded. Cauliflower is a low-calorie, nutritious vegetable. A serving of three boiled flowerets provides a number of vitamins, minerals and amino acids.
Vitamins
Three cauliflower flowerets provide six of the vitamins in the B complex. As a single serving, they have 5 percent of the recommended daily intake -- RDI -- for B-6, 2 percent for thiamine and riboflavin, 1 percent for niacin, 3 percent for panthothenic acid and 6 percent for folate. These percentages are based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. The family of B vitamins is vital for your body to break foods down into energy during digestion. This serving of vegetables also gives you 2 percent of the RDI for vitamin C and 9 percent for vitamin K. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that neutralizes disease-causing molecules known as free radicals. Vitamin K is essential for your blood to coagulate when you bleed. The three boiled flowerets have trivial amounts of vitamins A and E.
Minerals
Boiled cauliflower has many essential minerals. A bowl of three flowerets gives you 1 percent of the recommended daily intake for calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium. It also provides 2 percent of the RDI for potassium and phosphorous and 4 percent for manganese. This cauliflower serving has trivial amounts of sodium, copper and selenium. Every mineral has its own role to play to keep you healthy. Potassium, for example, is an electrolyte that sends electric pulses to energize your cells, tissues and organs.
Amino Acids
Your body needs a continuous supply of amino acids to produce replacement proteins for old ones. The amino acid content that three flowerets of cauliflower provide is sufficient to make 2 percent of the recommended daily intake for protein.
Additional Nutrition
This serving of boiled cauliflower has very few calories, only 12. It takes a three-minute moderate walk to burn them. The flowerets also provide 5 percent of the recommended daily intake for dietary fiber. Your body needs the roughage for regular bowel movements and for maintaining your glucose and cholesterol at normal levels.
References
- Dole: Cauliflower
- SkipThePie.org: Nutritional Info: Cauliflower, Cooked, Boiled, Drained, without Salt
- American Cancer Society: Vitamin B Complex
- MedlinePlus; Vitamin C; Alison Evert, M.S., R.D., C.D.E. et al.; February 2011
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Vitamin K; Steven D. Ehrlich, N.M.D.; June 2009
- Linus Pauling Institute; Potassium; Jane Higdon, Ph.D. et al.; December 2010
- MedlinePlus; Fiber; Linda J. Vorvick, M.D. et al.; July 2010
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