Ladies finger or okra benefits. Okra is known in many English-speaking countries as ladies’ fingers, is a flowering plant that is valued for its edible green seed pods. The plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world.

Ladies finger or okra benefits:

• Okra is a rich source of many nutrients, including fiber, vitamin B6 and folic acid.
• The superior fiber found in okra helps to stabilize blood sugar as it curbs the rate at which sugar is absorbed from the intestinal tract.
• Okra’s mucilage not only binds cholesterol but bile acid carrying toxins dumped into it by the filtering liver.
• The okra fibre, absorbing water and ensuring bulk in stools, help prevent constipation. Fiber in general is helpful for this but okra is one of the best, along with ground flax seed and psyllium.
• Further contributing to the health of the intestinal tract, okra fiber (as well as flax and psyllium) has no equal among fibers for feeding the good bacteria (probiotics).
• To retain most of okra’s nutrients and self-digesting enzymes!, it should be cooked as little as possible. Some eat it raw.

From the research of Ms. Sylvia Zook, PH.D (nutrition), University of Illinois