10 portions of fruit and veg a day

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

peleroja wrote: »

AnnPT77 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.

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.)

I really don't like raw spinach at all. I love it cooked, though. For salads, I prefer romaine and a mix of red and green leaf. I don't usually buy bagged lettuce for salads.

We're having omelets for dinner tonight, I'll be having a spinach and mushroom omelet. It's my favorite.

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

Me too! And yes, expensive here as well and it's never, ever on sale

I just went and quickly checked my grocery store website, and butter lettuce is freaking cheaper than cos/romaine. It's been the opposite in the past.

Butter lettuce - $2.50 each
Romaine - $3.50 each

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

Me too! And yes, expensive here as well and it's never, ever on sale

I just went and quickly checked my grocery store website, and butter lettuce is freaking cheaper than cos/romaine. It's been the opposite in the past.

Butter lettuce - $2.50 each
Romaine - $3.50 each

Now I'm going to have to make a point to check it again next time I'm in the store, but I could have sworn the butter lettuce we have here is like half the size of the romaine. Gonna have to throw them on the scales and get a weight cost. Hehe

Aaah yes good point Butter lettuce is definitely smaller than romaine, so probably works out more expensive in the end!

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

I'm not a big eater of lettuce and always just stick to iceberg, but I was reading this thread right before I went into Aldi and I saw butter lettuce-I didn't even know that was a thing before this thread lol. I didn't buy any, but I could have gotten a bag of it for $1.49. It was cheaper than some of the other kinds of lettuce/bagged spinach. I may have to try it next week

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

I'm not a big eater of lettuce and always just stick to iceberg, but I was reading this thread right before I went into Aldi and I saw butter lettuce-I didn't even know that was a thing before this thread lol. I didn't buy any, but I could have gotten a bag of it for $1.49. It was cheaper than some of the other kinds of lettuce/bagged spinach. I may have to try it next week

It's my favourite lettuce, it really does have smooth, buttery taste and consistency.

Christine_72 wrote: »

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

I'm not a big eater of lettuce and always just stick to iceberg, but I was reading this thread right before I went into Aldi and I saw butter lettuce-I didn't even know that was a thing before this thread lol. I didn't buy any, but I could have gotten a bag of it for $1.49. It was cheaper than some of the other kinds of lettuce/bagged spinach. I may have to try it next week

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I keep reading romaine lettuce, and no idea what it was.. we call it 'cos lettuce' here in Aus, and yes it's definitely nicer than iceberg.

what about butter lettuce, do you guys have that? I googled it, and you guys might call it butterhead lettuce or cabbage lettuce.

I love butter lettuce, but it's always really expensive.

I'm not a big eater of lettuce and always just stick to iceberg, but I was reading this thread right before I went into Aldi and I saw butter lettuce-I didn't even know that was a thing before this thread lol. I didn't buy any, but I could have gotten a bag of it for $1.49. It was cheaper than some of the other kinds of lettuce/bagged spinach. I may have to try it next week

It's my favourite lettuce, it really does have smooth, buttery taste and consistency.

Yes, very tasty, but romaine/cos is a better keeper, with sturdier leaves. Probably why it tends to be cheaper (per weight, not per bunch/head). Iceberg & romaine are probably the most shipping & handling friendly. For my taste, romaine is tastier, and it's a bit more nutritious as well, compared to iceberg. If iceberg dropped off the planet, I wouldn't care - and for a rabid veggie lover like me, that's a strong statement.

Leaf lettuce is another good type (green/red), tender & tasty but also not that sturdy. Super easy to grow, as long as it's cool, though. Boston & bibb are butterheads by another name, more or less. There are some other general types, but Batavian is the only other conventional-ish salad-y one I know of.

fitmom4lifemfp 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?

If you like spinach maybe.

Haha Fair call. The thought never even crossed my mind

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

I've been thinking through my own habits on the heels of this.
I tend to have something veg with breakfast, but a small portion.
I often snack on raw vegetables.
I almost always have protein and veg for lunch, but in weird proportions. So, yesterday, for example, I had 4 ounces of chicken, and a whole BAG of broccoli (nearly 400 grams), stir fried in chili garlic paste.
Dinner is almost always protein and veg, or a veg soup, or just veg.

I don't tend to eat "a lot" of fruit, but do have berries, tomato juice, apples etc. fairly regularly.

I think I'll count and weigh for a few days to see where I am relative to "800 grams" of vegetables.

Yeah, I'd say I'm good.

I've been tracking just my vegetables the last few days. I like this recommendation!

Challenging myself to hit that 800g mark this week has been a lot harder than I thought it would be, I definitely was eating less v/f than I thought I was! I'm having a lot of fun with it though and I think it's something I'm going to keep working towards

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

I've been thinking through my own habits on the heels of this.
I tend to have something veg with breakfast, but a small portion.
I often snack on raw vegetables.
I almost always have protein and veg for lunch, but in weird proportions. So, yesterday, for example, I had 4 ounces of chicken, and a whole BAG of broccoli (nearly 400 grams), stir fried in chili garlic paste.
Dinner is almost always protein and veg, or a veg soup, or just veg.

I don't tend to eat "a lot" of fruit, but do have berries, tomato juice, apples etc. fairly regularly.

I think I'll count and weigh for a few days to see where I am relative to "800 grams" of vegetables.

Yeah, I'd say I'm good.

I've been tracking just my vegetables the last few days. I like this recommendation!

I'm struggling with it a bit. I can hit the 800g but it leaves me so full that I then struggle to get to a decent calorie amount.
Been doing it for 2 days and haven't netted 1200.

I averaged 4-600 gram a day before this advice change.

Last two days have been right at around 1,400 calories but I haven't hit 800g yet (today's the day lol!). I don't normally track on MFP but for this week I am and my protein intake has been pretty low. Going to try and get that up a bit today (maybe with an egg/veggie meal).

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

I've been thinking through my own habits on the heels of this.
I tend to have something veg with breakfast, but a small portion.
I often snack on raw vegetables.
I almost always have protein and veg for lunch, but in weird proportions. So, yesterday, for example, I had 4 ounces of chicken, and a whole BAG of broccoli (nearly 400 grams), stir fried in chili garlic paste.
Dinner is almost always protein and veg, or a veg soup, or just veg.

I don't tend to eat "a lot" of fruit, but do have berries, tomato juice, apples etc. fairly regularly.

I think I'll count and weigh for a few days to see where I am relative to "800 grams" of vegetables.

Yeah, I'd say I'm good.

I've been tracking just my vegetables the last few days. I like this recommendation!

Me too!

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Protein & vegetables advice from a long-time vegetarian:

• Eat the beans/legumes!
• Prefer veggies with a bit of protein over veggies without (look at your diary or the database to compare those you enjoy eating).
• Still get most of your protein from sources that have a complete complement of essential amino acids (for most of you that's meat/fish, but could be dairy or some plant foods).
• Look for calorie efficient protein sources. One place to look for ideas: Carbs and Fats are cheap. Here's a Guide to getting your PROTEIN's worth. Fiber also...

Do you have digestion issues with the beans? I had a serving yesterday (canned refried/pinto), for the first time in quite a while and had some bloat/gas issues. I like beans, but now remember why I stopped eating them

crzycatlady1 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Protein & vegetables advice from a long-time vegetarian:

• Eat the beans/legumes!
• Prefer veggies with a bit of protein over veggies without (look at your diary or the database to compare those you enjoy eating).
• Still get most of your protein from sources that have a complete complement of essential amino acids (for most of you that's meat/fish, but could be dairy or some plant foods).
• Look for calorie efficient protein sources. One place to look for ideas: Carbs and Fats are cheap. Here's a Guide to getting your PROTEIN's worth. Fiber also...

Do you have digestion issues with the beans? I had a serving yesterday (canned refried/pinto), for the first time in quite a while and had some bloat/gas issues. I like beans, but now remember why I stopped eating them

Not normally, and I eat them often, and quite often in quantity. Once in a rare case I do have some gas after eating beans, and I don't know why. Maybe random incidents with random foods happen to a lot of people?

I think maybe phasing them in (vs. eating a lot at once, suddenly) might make a difference, if the phenomenon has to do with microbiome factors. (A ramp-up on any random new fiber sources that are pre-biotic, i.e., things your microbiome likes to eat can be gas-producing at first, but may not be so after some adaptation, I've found.)

Supposedly, if one's cooking dry beans at home, soaking/rinsing can be helpful. I have no evidence/conviction one way or the other.

Or, have you tried Beano, assuming you'd really like to eat beans? I haven't, because it hasn't seemed necessary, but have heard positive reviews from friends.