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Healthiest Greens?


FrederickSebastian

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Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has a chart or knows which green leafy vegetables are the most nutritious... I know iceberg is no good and spinach is great but other than that I have no idea... Where does cabbage fall? I really like cabbage and want to start basing my diet on cabbage if it is, indeed, nutrient dense...

Can anyone help?

Much thanks.

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Just for grins here is a list of the fresh greens & herbs I'll eat today and every day during the summer while my garden is producing. It is in approximate order of largest to smallest quantity consumed. The letter after each represents where it comes from: G=my Garden, F=Farm co-op I belong to, A=Aldi grocery store. 

Kale or collard greens (G, F) 

Spinach (A, F) 

Red leaf lettuce or Romaine (F, G) 

Red cabbage (F) 

Beet Greens or Swiss chard (F) 

Lemon balm (G) 

Mint (G) 

Basil (G) 

Thai basil (G) 

Red-veined sorrel (G) 

Sage (G) 

Oregano (G) 

Mexican tarragon (G) 

Cilantro (A) 

Lemon thyme (G) 

Stevia (G) 

--Dean 

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17 hours ago, FrederickSebastian said:

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has a chart or knows which green leafy vegetables are the most nutritious... I know iceberg is no good and spinach is great but other than that I have no idea... Where does cabbage fall? I really like cabbage and want to start basing my diet on cabbage if it is, indeed, nutrient dense...

Can anyone help?

Much thanks.

Cabbage is great, any variety!  Of course, eat it raw.

I eat 1-2lbs of raw Nappa cabbage every morning for breakfast, with a little unsweetened pure rice vinegar.

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There are no more "healthiest greens" than are "nicest notes" in an orchestra. It's the portfolio or symphony that makes the diet - and the presence and amplitude of each note impacts what other notes would best compliment it.

There are certainly more nutritionally dense greens and those have better supportive data or a stronger apparent effect size per calorie - typically from limited epidemiological studies which are with few exceptions the best we have for definitive outcomes. Other work also supports the concept of dietary diversity, which also can serve to dilute the bad and ensure some of the good- just as is described by modern portfolio theory around the concept of a well-balanced investment mix. 

Michael summarized nicely here- and the literature has not changed all that much since then:

"...specific foods that have been documented in long-term, well-designed prospective epidemiological studies or clinical trials to reduce the risk or improve the outcomes in actual diseases or mortality: short-term results using unvalidated surrogate markers don't count at all, and even results with well-validated disease risk factors (glycemia, blood lipoproteins, etc) must be treated with some caution and do not meet this bar when taken in isolation. On the list: raw vegetables; leafy greens; cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, cabbage, etc); Allium vegetables (onions, garlic, etc); carrots; green vegetables; citrus (including the peel -- but eat organic and wash thoroughly); cooked tomatoes; nuts; green tea; coffee [added fall 2012]; moderate (3-10 oz/d) wine, taken with a meal." [and EVOO]

Source: https://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/51743-michaels-quotidian-diet/

 

 

 

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On 9/6/2021 at 5:43 AM, Dean Pomerleau said:

This is a pretty good list:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/leafy-green-vegetables#TOC_TITLE_HDR_15

As for cabbage, I most eat the red variety figuring it has more phytonutients due to its color. 

--Dean 

Thanks, Dean... For the comment and the list!!! Now I know what to look for in the grocery store... Right now, I'm sticking to green cabbage, but would once a week be enough to have the red cabbage and reap its benefits? If not, how often would be the minimum?? I was thinking about switching my regular cabbage for red cabbage on Fridays... I'm currently doing regular cabbage on every day except Friday and Savoy cabbage on Fridays...

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  • 1 year later...

you ALL forgot watercress

https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/13_0390.htm

https://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/a20790239/watercress-tops-ranking-of-nutrient-dense-foods/

Also green leafy vegetables are less microplastic-contaminated than cruciferous vegetables and those with deeper roots

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On 9/12/2021 at 8:34 AM, Dean Pomerleau said:

Sounds like an improvement! The more variety you can work in the better. 

--Dean 

All that healthy variety seems so healthy! Congrats, seems like if anyone is gonna live to be 9,000 years old it's probably you lol 
 

But I wonder about all of thar healthy vegan variety and the idea of feast and famine. Does the body also benefit beyond 365-days of variety-only by increasing and decreasing with the seasons? Just spitballing, of course; but it seems like during the harsh we'd be historically forced by nature to limit variety, and even to endure long periods without eating at all. Then when the wheel in the sky keeps on turning, and everything blooms brightly again, we resume the happy feasting.

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