Is romaine lettuce really that much healthier than the other kind?
Asked by
jabag11 (
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January 11th, 2011
When I say “the other kind” i mean the kind that comes in a ball. lol. Some might refer to it as a “head” of lettuce. I was just wondering if Romaine Lettuce really has that much more nutrients?
I’m asking this because I heard that Romaine lettuce has a lot of more nutrients so I buy that but it’s so much easier to make sandwiches with the head of lettuce, BUT, if romaine lettuce is better than I’d much rather use that.
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Romaine is much better than head lettuce. Almost all of the head lettuce is water.
The darker the green the more nutrients it has in it.
I’ve read that Romaine lettuce has a lot more vitamin E than iceberg lettuce.
Ice berg is 95% water. Romaine is 94% water.
Vitamin E: Yes, Romaine has 13 Mg per 100 grams (a BIG serving) which is close to the MDR of 15 Mg. Iceberg has more (18 Mg) per 100 gram serving.
Neither of them contributes significantly to energy via starch, fat or protein.
From the USDA National Agricultural Library.
The amount of lettuce that I have eaten in the course of my twenty-three years would weigh less than a pound. I am rather healthy, all the same.
The darker green the lettuce the more vitamins. However, I think iceberg has more fiber than the thinner leaf that is less crunchy.
Oh, I just saw @mrlaconic basically said the same as me. I missed that when I first skimmed the answers.
Who cares – it’s like a million times yummier!
There are lots of lettuces, and spinach, for that matter. Some may be healthier than others. A spinach salad is pretty helpful, but that’s just one choice. There’s arugula,Belgian endive, boston lettuce, bibb lettuce, and, me, I add the dandelion greens from the yard, too.
Dark green leafy vegetables are high in iron. Some are extra high in antioxidants as well. Iceberg lettuce (if that’s the kind you are talking about) is practically devoid of nutrients. You can pretty much tell that because it’s almost all water, whereas the dark green veggies are full of a lot more than merely water. There are a lot of sources out there for this information. Simply laying a leaf or two on your sandwich is not going to give you much nutrition, but it’s a start.
Eat well.
You think romaine tastes better? For me it depends on the salad. Iceberg is my favorite on sandwiches, and when I eat a salad with tuna salad on top. Romaine I like for a greek salad I make. I like either one when I have salad with steak. Spring mix for a sweeter salad with apple, walnuts, and rasberry vinegrette. Yummy.
This guys lays it on the scientific and practical line, personally, I love raw spinach for a number of reasons, but delicious sweet romaine can’t be beat.
http://whfoods.org/
It really is true. In most nutritional categories, romaine blows iceberg out of the water, plus it’s tastier. It also contains about 4 times the amount of phytosterols, which are the primary reason lettuce is on the American Institute for Cancer Research’s list of cancer fighting foods. Did I mention it tastes better too? (That is, it tastes like something which is better than the nothingness of iceberg.) Why even bother with berg?
@Smashley Berg is for the crunch, and that it is rather tasteless.
No.
It’s more that Iceberg lettuce was engineered to survive shipping.
The cost? Practically all nutritional value.
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