Why Do We Care So Much About Kale?

I can’t tell you the first time I ate kale, but I can tell you the first time it really popped onto my radar. Just over a year ago, a friend and I visited the much-loved restaurant Animal during a trip to Los Angeles. On the menu: a raw kale salad, chopped into small pieces and dressed with something spicy. I tweeted about how ballsy I found raw kale on a menu, clearly not understanding the regularity with which kale would enter my life.

There are obvious health and nutrition benefits to the leafy green — doctors, scientists, nutritionists have offered irrefutable evidence of its worth. Rich in vitamins A, C, K and 45 different flavonoids — plant-based compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, for starters. Celebs from Gwynnie to Seacrest have touted its benefits and everyone and their mother is suddenly in love with kale chips. Whole Foods sells the things dried in bags for like $6 or something ridiculous. Yesterday, I heard two radio DJs banter about kale for a solid ninety seconds.

I’m curious how word about this leafy green has traveled. My gut says the Internet and social media. Would kale be so sexy if we didn’t see it everywhere? Would we delight in our twice-weekly kale salads if we didn’t see recipes saved, shared and photographed by friends? Would you follow the same nutrition and meal-planning advice if you saw a headline kale story on the nightly news, or read about it in the Times? (Both of which have obviously happened during the last year-plus of kalepalooza.)

I’m not one to knock a food trend of any flavor, especially one that’s delivering serious nutrition to the masses. (This may be unpopular opinion, but I’d choose it over bone marrow, which according to notable food writer Josh Ozersky is similarly over-touted.) Do you make kale? Do you love kale? Do you honestly delight in talking about kale, sharing photos of kale, ordering kale, growing kale?

To compare, the current state of kale madness calls to mind bacon’s massive coup around 2007... Except that since kale is healthier and, in a sense, more pure than cured, smoked, salted pork belly, we’re more proud to admit and publicly document our obsession. Kale is good. It’s healthy, and relatively cheap and easy to find.

But honestly, is it really that fantastic — or just fantastic fodder for tweets, photos, Instagrams, text messages and blog posts (not unlike this one)? Does reading about it, viewing friends’ photos, and noting how much our social circle adores kale compel us to consume more?