10 portions of fruit and veg a day
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Oh, as for the calories, I calculated on of my days for you. A 27 serving of veggies day came up at 539 calories from veggies, so what 10 servings would be adding is not as bad as you would expect.
I think most people may need to add some fat to their veggies, to make them palatable, so increasing F&V may involve to decrease something else in order to keep calories constant.0 -
It should be veggies and some fruit. I try to eat 2-3 pieces of fruit a day and veggies until satiated.1
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Gianfranco_R wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Oh, as for the calories, I calculated on of my days for you. A 27 serving of veggies day came up at 539 calories from veggies, so what 10 servings would be adding is not as bad as you would expect.
I think most people may need to add some fat to their veggies, to make them palatable, so increasing F&V may involve to decrease something else in order to keep calories constant.
That's true, but the volume may end up displacing other foods so it evens out.
Here is how the day I calculated played (and yes, I know that very few people munch on whole raw tomatoes all day)
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I eat a lot, especially for a female. I was checking my diary, I could easily do 10- with all the vegetables and fruit I eat. I don't want to start counting that though, cause it will seem like a chore then I will start hating them. I am rebellious like that.2
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amusedmonkey wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I'm kind of surprised at how many in this thread eat the amount of veggies and fruit that they eat, I don't know anyone in real life who eats close to that (my husband for example doesn't eat fruit or veggies at all-as in NONE). I actually forwarded my mother-in-law the article link, and she responded back that she maybe gets in 3-4 servings a day. And she's someone who I consider very healthy/eats healthy.
I still don't know how I'm going to actually fit in 800 grams a day for my little challenge next week. For those who do hit that (or close to it), how many meals/snacks do you eat a day? I typically only eat twice, with an occasional afternoon snack, so that breaks down to around 400g per meal. I don't know if my stomach can actually handle that much
I eat 2-3 meals a day but snack a lot in between. My snacks are mostly raw tomatoes and sometimes other veggies too but I do end up with a few pieces of fruit too by the end of the day. My biggest meal usually contains most of my veggies. If roasting or doing cooked leafy, I often go with about 500-1000 grams of raw veggies, or 100-300 grams of leafy veggies. It sounds like a lot of food but it really isn't. I like my cauliflower and eggplant well-roasted so a kilo shrinks down to barely a bowl. If I'm making soup or raw salad it ends up being less per serving than I would do for roasting. My other meals also always contain veggies in some form but in smaller quantities. People eat popcorn when watching TV, I randomly munch on raw lettuce, cauliflower or cabbage leaves right off the stem because I love the crunch.
ETA: I often end up with anywhere between 15-40 servings of veggies a day if I'm not eating out or fasting, so the way I eat is not representative of what it would take to eat 10. Trust me, it won't be hard.
Do you have any idea how much you spend on produce a week? Another thing I'm thinking of is the cost of eating more veggies and fruit.
It wouldn't be representative. Most fruits and vegetables in season are not that expensive here (some go as low as 10 cents per pound)
Wow, that's fantastic! I just pulled up next week's ad for one of the stores I shop at (meijer), and not a lot of good deals on produce next week-I am going to get a couple pounds of asparagus ($1.48lb) and then a cantaloupe, which will be on sale for $1.68. And that's about it for that store Will get the rest of my produce/groceries at Aldi and waiting for them to put their ad up. 0 -
ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I want to know how they know this. Did they ask you? Me? Everyone here? I never take these types of statements seriously because I just don't know where they get their information.
Of course they didn't ask everyone. Have you heard of statistical sampling? If the data is based on self reporting it may even be a bit overstated.
Thr data is from the Center for Disease Control. I'm sure their methodology is valid.
Of course I have heard of statistical sampling. My question was rhetorical. Sampling does not give an accurate picture of anything. Which is why I say I am not so quick to accept these types of statements.
So you don't accept political opinion polls TV ratings, etc as directionally correct? Even with a much more than the statistical margin of error, the study says only a small minority get the recommended # of servings.1 -
Packerjohn wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »ThatUserNameIsAllReadyTaken wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I want to know how they know this. Did they ask you? Me? Everyone here? I never take these types of statements seriously because I just don't know where they get their information.
Of course they didn't ask everyone. Have you heard of statistical sampling? If the data is based on self reporting it may even be a bit overstated.
Thr data is from the Center for Disease Control. I'm sure their methodology is valid.
Of course I have heard of statistical sampling. My question was rhetorical. Sampling does not give an accurate picture of anything. Which is why I say I am not so quick to accept these types of statements.
So you don't accept political opinion polls TV ratings, etc as directionally correct? Even with a much more than the statistical margin of error, the study says only a small minority get the recommended # of servings.
No I do not accept political opinion polls. My actual and only point is that I take these types of statements with a grain of salt. Unless they actually went out and asked a million people they have no real clue. This goes for all of these polls. But you can believe in them all you want. That is totally your prerogative.0 -
crzycatlady1 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I'm kind of surprised at how many in this thread eat the amount of veggies and fruit that they eat, I don't know anyone in real life who eats close to that (my husband for example doesn't eat fruit or veggies at all-as in NONE). I actually forwarded my mother-in-law the article link, and she responded back that she maybe gets in 3-4 servings a day. And she's someone who I consider very healthy/eats healthy.
I still don't know how I'm going to actually fit in 800 grams a day for my little challenge next week. For those who do hit that (or close to it), how many meals/snacks do you eat a day? I typically only eat twice, with an occasional afternoon snack, so that breaks down to around 400g per meal. I don't know if my stomach can actually handle that much
I eat no more than three times a day, but one of those times is just a morning protein bar. All my vegetable eating is confined to one or two meals (one is almost always a large green salad.) I might just be used to it, though, as my salad usually has two whole heads of romaine in it...
As far as price, I would estimate that all the weekly vegetables come in at about $40 for the two of us and overall we spend about $180-$200/month on vegetables (and probably $600-$700 month on groceries/household stuff total for the two of us.)
We live in a cold climate and buy almost all our vegetables at Costco. Every week we buy two of the 6-head packages of romaine, a bag of mini cucumbers, a bag of bell peppers, flat of tomatoes, bag of broccoli or green beans or brussels sprouts, bag of celery, and then a bag of lemons every two weeks and large bag of carrots as needed and onions/potatoes as needed (but we don't eat these frequently.)
We don't usually buy frozen or canned as I don't like either much (texture). That said, we're fortunate to be in a financial position where we can feed ourselves with whatever we want, so beyond being careful not to let things go bad - I do first-in-first-out so we never have to throw out food - I admit I don't really make any attempts to economize and just buy heaps of fresh stuff instead of looking for savings.
I dunno, I was raised thinking that vegetables should be the largest part of every meal and I've mostly always eaten like that. Is that really an anomaly? I had "VEGETABLES ARE FULL OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS AND YOU NEED TO EAT LOTS OF THEM IF YOU WANT TO BE HEALTHY" drilled into my head from earliest childhood and I thought that was fairly common.
I kind of don't even know what I would eat if you took vegetables out of the equation...I can't think of anything I eat on a regular basis that I could still make.2 -
crzycatlady1 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I'm kind of surprised at how many in this thread eat the amount of veggies and fruit that they eat, I don't know anyone in real life who eats close to that (my husband for example doesn't eat fruit or veggies at all-as in NONE). I actually forwarded my mother-in-law the article link, and she responded back that she maybe gets in 3-4 servings a day. And she's someone who I consider very healthy/eats healthy.
I still don't know how I'm going to actually fit in 800 grams a day for my little challenge next week. For those who do hit that (or close to it), how many meals/snacks do you eat a day? I typically only eat twice, with an occasional afternoon snack, so that breaks down to around 400g per meal. I don't know if my stomach can actually handle that much
I eat no more than three times a day, but one of those times is just a morning protein bar. All my vegetable eating is confined to one or two meals (one is almost always a large green salad.) I might just be used to it, though, as my salad usually has two whole heads of romaine in it...
As far as price, I would estimate that all the weekly vegetables come in at about $40 for the two of us and overall we spend about $180-$200/month on vegetables (and probably $600-$700 month on groceries/household stuff total for the two of us.)
We live in a cold climate and buy almost all our vegetables at Costco. Every week we buy two of the 6-head packages of romaine, a bag of mini cucumbers, a bag of bell peppers, flat of tomatoes, bag of broccoli or green beans or brussels sprouts, bag of celery, and then a bag of lemons every two weeks and large bag of carrots as needed and onions/potatoes as needed (but we don't eat these frequently.)
We don't usually buy frozen or canned as I don't like either much (texture). That said, we're fortunate to be in a financial position where we can feed ourselves with whatever we want, so beyond being careful not to let things go bad - I do first-in-first-out so we never have to throw out food - I admit I don't really make any attempts to economize and just buy heaps of fresh stuff instead of looking for savings.
I dunno, I was raised thinking that vegetables should be the largest part of every meal and I've mostly always eaten like that. Is that really an anomaly? I had "VEGETABLES ARE FULL OF VITAMINS AND MINERALS AND YOU NEED TO EAT LOTS OF THEM IF YOU WANT TO BE HEALTHY" drilled into my head from earliest childhood and I thought that was fairly common.
I kind of don't even know what I would eat if you took vegetables out of the equation...I can't think of anything I eat on a regular basis that I could still make.
Thanks for the input! My weekly grocery budget for a family of 5 is $100/$400 a month, so I do have to be mindful of what I buy. But, I'm starting to make out my meal plan for my 800g experiment, and it shouldn't be too costly (I hope lol). I'm going to stick to basics like bananas for fruit, and then lots of frozen veggies and bagged spinach/lettuce. I can get these things at Aldi fairly cheap
eta: pound containers of strawberries are on sale this week so I think I'll get a couple of those tomorrow and then freeze them for green smoothies next week. I don't usually eat strawberries, so I have no idea what a serving in grams looks like, but those little suckers are heavy so hopefully a lot
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crzycatlady1 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I'm kind of surprised at how many in this thread eat the amount of veggies and fruit that they eat, I don't know anyone in real life who eats close to that (my husband for example doesn't eat fruit or veggies at all-as in NONE). I actually forwarded my mother-in-law the article link, and she responded back that she maybe gets in 3-4 servings a day. And she's someone who I consider very healthy/eats healthy.
I still don't know how I'm going to actually fit in 800 grams a day for my little challenge next week. For those who do hit that (or close to it), how many meals/snacks do you eat a day? I typically only eat twice, with an occasional afternoon snack, so that breaks down to around 400g per meal. I don't know if my stomach can actually handle that much
I usually eat 3 meals, only occasional small snacks (that are more likely protein-y or an adult bev), and most of the veg/fruit are in one or two meals, as part of the main dish, a side, a salad, or raw (I like to cut up some raw and nosh on those while I cook the rest of the food). (Breakfast either has no fruit/veg for me, or about 2 servings of frozen berries, depending on the day.)
Biggest advice for the challenge, from a heavy fruit/veg eater:
Don't wait until next week to start. Your digestive system will be happier if you gradually increase fiber. Be sure to drink enough water, and to get some fat with veg-heavy meals (for vitamin absorption, as well as digestive-system happiness). Doesn't have to be a huge amount of fat, but some, and could itself be a veg (avocado, for example).
Cost-wise, consider the value of inexpensive options. This includes deals on frozen veg as well as some fresh options.
Most anything I cook in a pan (eggs, stir-fry, tomato sauce, soup, etc.) starts with browning at least half and maybe a whole yellow onion. I do it for yum more than extra veggies, but a good-sized yellow onion is 200g+, and a big bag of them tends to be fairly affordable.
Cabbage also tends to be relatively inexpensive, along with some of the less popular root veg. They're all delicious roasted: Do a massive batch, put the extras in the fridge, eat later reheated or cold in/as salad.
Calorically, for me (when I was starting to lose), increased veggies displaced 'filler' or convenience carbs like pasta, grains, sandwich bread, etc. The calorie (and carb) levels let one replace a moderate amount of the filler/convenience food with quite a few servings of veg.
For fruit, one option not everyone uses is "fruit as substrate": Peanut butter is nice on an apple instead of toast (better, in my world), for example. Cheese & fruit is also great.
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Great tips, thanks Ann!2
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I've tried so hard today and made it to 525g
Next week will be a huge challenge!
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RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »I've tried so hard today and made it to 525g
Next week will be a huge challenge!
I'm under 500g for the day, with no more veg/fruit planned, darn it lol.1 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »Will anyone be following the new advice of ten 80g portions of fruit and or veg a day? (UK) It used to be five and now it is recommended to eat ten portions a day to avoid deaths from cancers/strokes and heart attacks. And what do you think is the best way to do this?
I dunno but I sure won't be attempting it. I put all those foods in my calculator and I get 630 calories....just for fruits and veggies. Yeah not happening.
How did you come up with 630? I used carrot as proxy, being a middle of the road calorie veggie (things like cauliflower and broccoli would be even lower) and I came up with 329 calories for 800 grams. Have you used a fruit in your calculations?
I put the exact items in that was picture in the link.0 -
Will anyone be following the new advice of ten 80g portions of fruit and or veg a day? (UK) It used to be five and now it is recommended to eat ten portions a day to avoid deaths from cancers/strokes and heart attacks. And what do you think is the best way to do this?
I'll just continue doing what I am doing and not stress about it.
I try to have vegetables or fruits with my meals and snacks.0 -
fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »fitmom4lifemfp wrote: »Will anyone be following the new advice of ten 80g portions of fruit and or veg a day? (UK) It used to be five and now it is recommended to eat ten portions a day to avoid deaths from cancers/strokes and heart attacks. And what do you think is the best way to do this?
I dunno but I sure won't be attempting it. I put all those foods in my calculator and I get 630 calories....just for fruits and veggies. Yeah not happening.
How did you come up with 630? I used carrot as proxy, being a middle of the road calorie veggie (things like cauliflower and broccoli would be even lower) and I came up with 329 calories for 800 grams. Have you used a fruit in your calculations?
I put the exact items in that was picture in the link.
It's really going to vary based on what veggie/fruit combinations people are eating. I'm putting together my plan for Monday and so far I'm up to around 600 grams, and it's only around 187 calories. That's for 227g of lettuce (going to make a taco salad), 148g of tomato, 118g of banana and then 100g asparagus.1 -
Nope. Don't like vegetables enough to force the amount for every meal and don't regularly eat much fruit.
Because I cook just for myself, I often eat the same thing for a week or more. If my meals turned over quicker, I would probably get the recommended amounts regularly now. As it is, I'll have weeks where I'll get only 2-4 servings per day, but then there will be weeks where I get probably double or triple the recommendation every day.
It's the difference between meals of chicken sausage and mixed grains, and meals of split pea soup.0 -
Edit then: A lot for me. Salad is not a favourite food of mine.0 -
I'm very encouraged by this. I slacked off veg over the year I was losing weight and practically stopped fruit completely.
Since maintaining weight the last 6 months I increased vegetables and having been a vegetarian, lacto ovo, for many years, I've been missing that way of eating and getting keen by the day to get back to it. I have no problem eating 10 servings of veg now that I regularly roast them, plus evening suppers we often have avocados. I think I can just add a few fruit in place of bread and make fruit and veg st least 1000 grams a day easily. Now if chocolate were a fruit, that would really help me.1 -
That's amazing.amusedmonkey wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »Packerjohn wrote: »Lot of outliers here. According to the CDC, only 10% of Americans eat the recommended amount of fruits and veggies.
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/only-1-in-10-americans-eats-enough-fruits-and-veggies-cdc-701213.html
I'm kind of surprised at how many in this thread eat the amount of veggies and fruit that they eat, I don't know anyone in real life who eats close to that (my husband for example doesn't eat fruit or veggies at all-as in NONE). I actually forwarded my mother-in-law the article link, and she responded back that she maybe gets in 3-4 servings a day. And she's someone who I consider very healthy/eats healthy.
I still don't know how I'm going to actually fit in 800 grams a day for my little challenge next week. For those who do hit that (or close to it), how many meals/snacks do you eat a day? I typically only eat twice, with an occasional afternoon snack, so that breaks down to around 400g per meal. I don't know if my stomach can actually handle that much
I eat 2-3 meals a day but snack a lot in between. My snacks are mostly raw tomatoes and sometimes other veggies too but I do end up with a few pieces of fruit too by the end of the day. My biggest meal usually contains most of my veggies. If roasting or doing cooked leafy, I often go with about 500-1000 grams of raw veggies, or 100-300 grams of leafy veggies. It sounds like a lot of food but it really isn't. I like my cauliflower and eggplant well-roasted so a kilo shrinks down to barely a bowl. If I'm making soup or raw salad it ends up being less per serving than I would do for roasting. My other meals also always contain veggies in some form but in smaller quantities. People eat popcorn when watching TV, I randomly munch on raw lettuce, cauliflower or cabbage leaves right off the stem because I love the crunch.
ETA: I often end up with anywhere between 15-40 servings of veggies a day if I'm not eating out or fasting, so the way I eat is not representative of what it would take to eat 10. Trust me, it won't be hard.
Do you have any idea how much you spend on produce a week? Another thing I'm thinking of is the cost of eating more veggies and fruit.
It wouldn't be representative. Most fruits and vegetables in season are not that expensive here (some go as low as 10 cents per pound)
Kroger has a dollar bin of cheaper produce and the 99cent store is chock full of stuff.
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I agree that it's probably a good recommendation (I'm definitely less hungry if I have a lot of veggies in a day), but I just can't see it happen in my house... I just really don't like veggies so much and would rather spend the calories on something else...0
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All I do is aim high on my vegetable intake - I try my best to have vegetables at breakfast, lunch and dinner most days. That is good enough for me.1
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To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?1
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Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Probably, but spinach in a taco salad is just blech I am planning a spinach, bacon and sweet pepper salad for one of my meals on Tuesday though! 1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Depends on the type of lettuce. Iceberg is not nutritionally amazing, but it does have some vitamin K (30% of DV in 100g for 14 calories), vitamin A (10%), folate (7%), and vitamin C (5%), along with smaller amounts of other micros, and 1.2g fiber. 100g is not a huge amount - 72g shredded is supposed to be 1 cup.
Other lettuce types (leaf, romaine, butterhead . . .) have substantially greater amounts of a wider range of micros, and (IMO) are tastier.
Yeah, spinach is "better", but lettuce isn't bad . . . for the calories, especially.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Depends on the type of lettuce. Iceberg is not nutritionally amazing, but it does have some vitamin K (30% of DV in 100g for 14 calories), vitamin A (10%), folate (7%), and vitamin C (5%), along with smaller amounts of other micros, and 1.2g fiber. 100g is not a huge amount - 72g shredded is supposed to be 1 cup.
Other lettuce types (leaf, romaine, butterhead . . .) have substantially greater amounts of a wider range of micros, and (IMO) are tastier.
Yeah, spinach is "better", but lettuce isn't bad . . . for the calories, especially.
Ahh ok. I did the nutritional comparison of iceberg V spinach. I remember someone once telling that that you may as well eat water if you go with iceberg lettuce lol
@crzycatlady I've never had a taco salad, off to google recipe now
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Christine_72 wrote: »Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Depends on the type of lettuce. Iceberg is not nutritionally amazing, but it does have some vitamin K (30% of DV in 100g for 14 calories), vitamin A (10%), folate (7%), and vitamin C (5%), along with smaller amounts of other micros, and 1.2g fiber. 100g is not a huge amount - 72g shredded is supposed to be 1 cup.
Other lettuce types (leaf, romaine, butterhead . . .) have substantially greater amounts of a wider range of micros, and (IMO) are tastier.
Yeah, spinach is "better", but lettuce isn't bad . . . for the calories, especially.
Ahh ok. I did the nutritional comparison of iceberg V spinach. I remember someone once telling that that you may as well eat water if you go with iceberg lettuce lol
@crzycatlady I've never had a taco salad, off to google recipe now
Taco salad is a lot of fun! I do shredded iceberg lettuce, seasoned ground beef (with taco seasoning), sliced black olives, diced tomato, diced onion, shredded co-jack cheese, sour cream, hot sauce and then crushed tortilla chips-all mixed together in a big bowl! It's a bit time consuming to put together but it's a big hit with the family (and I can knock off a few grams of veggies for my challenge lol).
eta: you can also switch out the ground beef for chicken and do French dressing instead of hot sauce.1 -
Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Variety is key.
For side salads, I usually buy mixed salad bags (which may contain baby spinach).
Cooked spinach is a staple in my diet, yet I try not to exaggerate, since it is high in oxalate, and I don't want to find out I am prone to kidney stones...0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Depends on the type of lettuce. Iceberg is not nutritionally amazing, but it does have some vitamin K (30% of DV in 100g for 14 calories), vitamin A (10%), folate (7%), and vitamin C (5%), along with smaller amounts of other micros, and 1.2g fiber. 100g is not a huge amount - 72g shredded is supposed to be 1 cup.
Other lettuce types (leaf, romaine, butterhead . . .) have substantially greater amounts of a wider range of micros, and (IMO) are tastier.
Yeah, spinach is "better", but lettuce isn't bad . . . for the calories, especially.
This. We eat tons of romaine in our house but don't really like the earthy flavour of spinach in most salads. I dress most of mine with lemon juice and I don't like the combo with spinach much. Unless I'm using bacon pieces, goat cheese, or a fruit vinaigrette, spinach just isn't for me (and it always gets kinda slimy much faster than the whole heads of romaine we buy, which I can often have in the fridge up to two weeks and still have them fresh and crisp.)0 -
Christine_72 wrote: »To those counting lettuce as a serving, wouldn't you get more vitamin/mineral bang for your buck using spinach instead?
Depends on the type of lettuce. Iceberg is not nutritionally amazing, but it does have some vitamin K (30% of DV in 100g for 14 calories), vitamin A (10%), folate (7%), and vitamin C (5%), along with smaller amounts of other micros, and 1.2g fiber. 100g is not a huge amount - 72g shredded is supposed to be 1 cup.
Other lettuce types (leaf, romaine, butterhead . . .) have substantially greater amounts of a wider range of micros, and (IMO) are tastier.
Yeah, spinach is "better", but lettuce isn't bad . . . for the calories, especially.
This. We eat tons of romaine in our house but don't really like the earthy flavour of spinach in most salads. I dress most of mine with lemon juice and I don't like the combo with spinach much. Unless I'm using bacon pieces, goat cheese, or a fruit vinaigrette, spinach just isn't for me (and it always gets kinda slimy much faster than the whole heads of romaine we buy, which I can often have in the fridge up to two weeks and still have them fresh and crisp.)
Stunned the heck out of me, but I've found that spinach from local folks at the farmers market, especially the Winter/early-Spring spinach*, keeps way, way longer than store spinach. I've had it stay at salad quality for as much as two weeks in the fridge . . . and I'm pretty picky about salad.
* I suspect the Spring spinach only keeps better because it's cooler in the truck on the way to the market (small time farmers, some use regular coolers, some don't, but no refrigeration), and also cooler in the (indoor) market in Winter than it will be later in Spring, let alone the early-summer outdoor version.0
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