Healthiest Leafy Green Vegetables?
Many people don’t eat green veggies for various reasons. This article will discuss the healthiest leafy green vegetables to include in your diet.
Following is the list of the top 10 leafy green vegetables that you should try to include in your everyday food:
Purslane:
It belongs to the family of Portulacaceae. Purslane has golden-green flesh and tender leaves. This veggie has a cooling effect on the body due to its high water content, and hence it helps a great deal in reducing summer heat conditions by hydrating our body from within. Like most other leafy greens, purslane is also an excellent source of dietary fiber, which keeps us satiated for longer, thus reducing our cravings for junk food.
Purple Kohlrabi:
This is another cooling veggie that belongs to the cruciferous family. The purple kohlrabi leaves are much more nutritious than their stem or bulb. It is rich in potassium, calcium, folic acid, and beta-carotene. According to recent studies, pigments present in this veggie have anti-cancerous properties and inhibit tumor growth of breast cancer cells.
Lettuce:
Lettuce comes from the Latin name lettuce, which means wet or juicy. There are many lettuce varieties like butterhead, cos & crisphead, etc. Still, the iceberg variety of lettuce is most commonly used as salad vegetables owing to its crunchy and sweet taste.
This cooling veggie is excellent for summers as it hydrates our body from within. Iceberg lettuce is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus, making it a good source of bone-strengthening minerals.
Collard Greens:
These greens are also known as borecole or colewort, which belong to the family of Brassica oleracea acephala (mustard green). Raw collard greens can be consumed in salads; they can be cooked like spinach by boiling them with salt and lemon juice added to them and sautéed with cloves and onion. It has many medicinal properties like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, etc., and Collard greens help keep our eyes healthy due to their high vitamin A and C content.
Sorrel Withania Somnifera:
It is native to India. Sorrel leaves contain oxalic acid, so it’s not suitable for those prone to kidney stones. This veggie is rich in iron, niacin, calcium, phosphorous, and vitamin c.
According to a recent study, it enhances our memory power by improving the blood flow through the nervous system due to its anti-inflammatory properties, which reduce all kinds of inflammation within our body. Calorie-conscious people can make sorrel as their salad vegetables; since this veggie contains only 19 calories per half-cup serving with abundant nutrients like vitamins B6 & C, potassium magnesium, etc.,
Black Radish Greens:
Black radish belongs to the mustard green family. Greens, as well as the bulb of this veggie, can be used in cooking.
Raw greens like lettuce, spinach, and many other veggies are hard to digest, but these leaves contain fibers that increase our body’s ability to absorb nutrients quickly and easily; t, reducing gas formation & indigestion problems. Black radish is a rich source of antioxidants and dietary fiber with just 35 calories per half-cup serving with high potassium content, vitamin C & E, etc.,
Collard Greens:
There are many different varieties of collard greens like Southern, Red Russian, etc., but we mainly use broad-leaved collard greens or flat-leaved types for cooking. This is again bitter-tasting veggie due to the high concentration of oxalic acid, which makes it difficult to digest, but it is rich in calcium, boron, vitamin c & d. Like other leafy greens, even collard greens are very edible and can be used as salad vegetables.
Greek Parsley:
This parsley plant belongs to the Apiaceae family, just like celery stalks, carrots, et.. Greek parsley is one of the most aromatic herbs with a sweet pine-like flavor. It contains phytonutrients & antioxidants that fight against inflammation and cholesterol accumulation within our body, thus reducing many heart-related problems like high blood pressure.
This herb has diuretic properties, which help us expel toxins by increasing urination. Intake of this veggie helps reduce nicotine withdrawal symptoms, thus helping to quit smoking.
Side effects of eating green leafy vegetables:
1. They cause obesity and various health problems:
2. They contain a high amount of acid:
3. They produce toxins in our body:
4. The layer in the leaves produces harmful gases in the stomach:
5. Avoid eating vegetables on an empty stomach:
6. Pregnant women avoid green leafy vegetables:
7. Vegetables are not for everyone; you can get all the nutrients from milk instead;
8. Side effects of eating fast food (vegetables):- includes cancer, heart attack, diabetes, and stroke:
9 . Green vegetables make babies lazy and slow:
10 . Effects of eating vegetables with sugar:
11. Eat only ripe vegetables:
12. Avoid eating empty stomach vegetables for up to 3 hours:
13. Greenery in vegetables produces acidity and gas in the body.:
14 . Side effects of eating fast food (vegetables):- includes cancer, heart attack, diabetes, and stroke:-
15. Green leafy vegetables are not for everyone; you can get all nutrients from milk instead:
Leafy greens nutrition comparison:
As per my observation, a tremendous amount of misinformation about vegetables is on the internet. Now I will show you some scientific facts about them, which are very important for our health and growth.
One should remember the following points while taking green leafy vegetables:
1) Green leafy vegetables contain a high amount of acid, which can affect our body badly if we take these foods with an empty stomach. So try to eat these foods after full dinner or lunch with curd or buttermilk.:
2) We all know that they produce toxins in our bodies by eating these foods. Still, very few people understand that layers in green leafy vegetables have harmful gases in the stomach while digesting, which can badly affect our body’s digestive system. So try to take these foods after 3-4 hours of your dinner.:-
3) Eating green leafy vegetables with sugar is more harmful than taking just sugar because due to the presence of acid in it, it will produce acidity and gas in our stomach, which can create many problems for us.
4) Pregnant women must avoid eating green leafy vegetables and fruits because they contain a high amount of acid and toxins in them:
5) Greenery in vegetables produces acids and gases in the stomach while digesting; so we should try not to eat these empty foods stomach(more than 3 hrs after dinner):-
6) It is a challenge to eat vegetables with fast food because harmful chemicals in fast foods react badly and produce acids and gases in the stomach, which can create many health problems for us.