Field to Table - Salad Greens

Studies are showing how important greens are to one's overall wellbeing. For instance researchers are supporting the notion that eating spinach, broccoli and brussel sprouts is important to good brain health. Having high cholesterol and high blood pressure -- both caused primarily by making poor dietary choices -- greatly increased the risk of Alzheimer's. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can help ward some of these devastating effects of memory loss.

Eyeing Your Greens

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables also keeps your eyes in good shape. While we know vitamin A in carrots aids night vision, other fruits and vegetables help prevent two common aging-related eye diseases - cataract and macular degeneration - which afflict millions of people over age sixty-five. Cataract is the gradual clouding of the eye's lens, a disk of protein that focuses light on the light-sensitive retina. Macular degeneration is caused by cumulative damage to the macula, the center of the retina. It starts as a blurred spot in the center of what you see. As the degeneration spreads, vision shrinks.

Free radicals generated by sunlight, cigarette smoke, air pollution, infection, and metabolism cause much of this damage. Dark green leafy vegetables contain two pigments, lutein and zeaxanthin, that accumulate in the eye. These two appear to be able to snuff out free radicals before they can harm the eye's sensitive tissues.

Picking Fresh Greens & Reds

OP HINT: Baby greens are not only delicious; they're more nutritious than traditional salads consisting of only iceberg or romaine lettuce. Iceberg lettuce has very little nutritional value; it is mostly water and a small amount of fiber. Vegetables that are better for you tend to be richer in color. For example, compare iceberg lettuce to spinach; spinach is better for you since it is rich in iron and folate.

Organic fruits and vegetables will limit your exposure to pesticides. However, organic produce tends to be pricier than conventional produce and may not be any more nutritious than conventional fruits and vegetables. To get a better dollar value for organic fruits and vegetables, try growing your own, finding a cooperative, or buying from a local farmer. Whether organic or not remember to wash your produce well.

Arugula

This leafy vegetable supplies folate (folic acid) and some calcium. Arugula is a member of the same family as cabbage and broccoli--and like all such vegetables, it contains cancer-fighting phytochemicals called indoles. Arugula's dark green color and tart flavor are an indication that it also contains some beta-carotene and vitamin C (more than any other salad green).

Baby Spinach

Cultivated for thousands of years, spinach is a versatile leafy green that features in just about every cuisine on the planet. Prized for its convenience and delicate, clean taste, spinach is exceptionally rich in carotenoids, including beta-carotene and lutein, and also contains quercetin, a phytochemical with antioxidant properties. Spinach is rich in vitamins and minerals, particularly folate (folic acid), vitamin K, magnesium, and manganese; it also contains more protein than most vegetables.

Beet Tops

Beet leaves are actually the most nutritious part of the plant. The tender young beet leaves are among the mildest cooking greens of all. The long green or greenish-red leaves supply a good amount of folate (folic acid) as well as some calcium, iron, beta-carotene and another phytochemical, betacyanin, which is (like beta-carotene) an antioxidant.

Swiss Chard

Chard is a good source of beta-carotene and dietary fiber. These greens come from a variety of beet grown for its stems and leaves, not its root. Their distinctive flavor is akin to (but milder than) that of beet greens and have a a full-bodied texture similar to spinach.The fleshy stalks and ribs are either white or, in red (ruby) chard, a jewel-like red. Unlike many greens, the stalks of Swiss chard are completely edible. In fact, in European countries they are considered the best part of the plant.

Kale

Like other members of the cabbage family, kale is a good source of vitamin C and is rich in phytochemicals, including sulforaphane and indoles, that may protect against cancer. Levels of beta-carotene--and other nutrients--in leafy greens appear to be linked to the presence of chlorophyll, the green pigment produced by photosynthesis that signals that this green vegetable. Kale has a substantial mineral content, providing manganese as well as some iron, calcium, and potassium. There's antioxidant vitamin E in the flavorful leaves as well.

Romain Lettuce

As a general rule, the darker green the leaves, the more nutritious the salad green. For example, romaine or watercress have seven to eight times as much beta-carotene, and two to four times the calcium, and twice the amount of potassium as iceberg lettuce. By varying the greens in your salads, you can enhance the nutritional content as well as vary the tastes and textures. Romaine lettuce has a crisp texture and an assertive, but not bitter, taste.

Looseleaf Lettuce

Their degree of crispness is midway between romaine and butterhead, their taste is mild and delicate. Oak leaf, red leaf, and green leaf are popular varieties.

Red Oak Leaf Lettuce

Leaf lettuce produces crisp leaves loosely arranged on the stalk. The leaves are either green or shaded to deep red at the edges, and may be ruffled or smooth. Their degree of crispness is midway between romaine and butterhead, their taste is mild and delicate.

Radicchio

Radicchio has a sharp, intense flavor that is pleasantly bitter. It is actually Italian Chicory. Radicchio has tender but firm leaves and is a popular green in salad mixes adding both colour and zest. Radicchio can be used raw in salads, as an ingredient in a variety of cooked dishes such as pasta or pizza and it is especially well suited for grilling. You can control the intensity of its flavor by soaking the leaves before you use them.

 

French Breakfast Radish

Radishes are root vegetables with a distinctive flavor that range from the juicy crispness of the familiar red globe radish to the sharp bite of the turnip-shaped black radish. Like their relatives broccoli, cabbage, and kale, radishes are cruciferous vegetables that offer cancer-protecting potential.

 

 

 

 

 

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