Health: Green Deliciousness

This last weekend, my wife and I were enjoying a sun kissed afternoon lunch at the nearby golf course with my in-laws (their treat). As our conversation had progressed, we had gotten to talking about my new favorite jolly green monster. It was sweet, it was cheap, and I believed it to be a healthy option in a world of poor choices. No, I’m not talking about licorice again. I’m talking about iceberg lettuce. It was something that I had only just moved to a short while ago in an attempt to lose some weight and save some cash at the same time.

The delicious and cheap green orb of juicy goodness had become a staple for me. At only 99 cents a head, it was what I was now
building my lunches around at work. By simply adding some chopped carrots and some honey mustard, I had moved to a much healthier option than cranking down yet another poorly constructed meal that was haphazardly placed together at the last minute while waltzing around the neighborhood Walmart. While the plan itself was much better than the previous lunches, it begged a question from my mother in-law who asked whether I was mixing the green deliciousness with any other greens. She further implied that my new found love was not as good for me as I had once believed.

I could feel the floor slip out from under me. How could my juicy delicious iceberg-chan have lied to me?! How did it convince me that it had only good intentions with its love? With a quick Google search, I found numerous websites bashing the vegetable. Some websites even called it the great impostor. But was it really so bad? I dug deeper to find out and after only a little digging, I found that most of the talk was avoiding the real truth.

The truth is that iceberg lettuce is actually not bad at all. In one cup of iceberg lettuce, one can obtain only 7 calories, 0.1g of total fat, and 77.55mg of Potassium. This all comes with only 0.6g of sugar. This makes it an excellent partner for weight loss. In addition, its high water content causes the person who is partaking in the feast to feel more full and be less likely to go searching for other garbage to devour later. However, this does come with a deeper truth. While my iceberg lettuce is a great tool for dieting, it is one of the lowest powerhouse greens that one could reach for. Other greens such as kale, spinach, and other spring mixes hold much better nutritional value. These other greens however do come at a higher price tag than the 99 cent discount bin that I can faithfully find the iceberg lettuce in.

Given these points, I will have to admit that the green that I have chosen to tighten the belt buckle with may not be the best thing out there. It is however still a great choice no matter what the skeptics say. It’s a healthy, budget friendly green that can be easily constructed into a salad or layered over any other to make a “mock-taco”. If on the other hand there is room in the budget for a higher price tag vegetable such as (disgusting) kale or romaine to build your salad from, it might be a good idea to look at using those instead as they can provide more benefits and nutritional value. It all boils down to taste, nutritional requirements, and preference.