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Which is the Most Nutrient Dense Color?
If you really want the most bang for your buck, buy this color vegetable and eat one everyday. This food group is the most nutrient dense color and supplies the body with a healthy immune system, a healthy heart, and healthy outlook on life. Do you know what it is?
Greens Lower Cholesterol
Better than a pharmaceutical, eating dark leafy greens will lower your cholesterol levels naturally. The fibers and minerals in greens bind to bile, which is made of cholesterol, and removes it from your body.
Greens Prevent the Growth of Cancers
Green vegetables are full of antioxidants that remove free radicals from the body and can stop the growth of cancerous cells. Brassicas, such as broccoli and cabbages have high sulfur enzyme counts and can prevent cancerous growths in the colon, where as greens with high folate such as spinach has been shown to reduce pancreatic cancers. These particulars are why it is important to eat a wide variety.
Greens Improve Your Mood
This is fascinating, but complicated, so please follow along carefully. B vitamins are very important to convert carbohydrates to glucose and increase energy levels. B vitamins are also precursors to neurotransmitters in the brain such has serotonin that makes us feel happy and peaceful. We cannot store B vitamins so we need to ingest them everyday or manufacture them in the large intestine. We can eat them in meats, especially liver and eggs, but there is a more efficient way. Our gut bacteria actually uses green vegetable fibers and whole grains that make it all the way to the large intestine to MAKE B vitamins. These fibrous foods are called PREbiotics because they feed the probiotics which convert them into B vitamins, isn't that amazing?
Greens Can Prevent Osteoporosis
Did you know broccoli can have more calcium than a glass of milk? Especially if your drinking skim milk because skim does not have enough fat soluble vitamin D to unlock the calcium absorption in your bones. Dark leafy greens have high amounts of calcium, magnesium, potassium and other minerals needed to build healthy bones so they are more important than drinking your milk.
Greens are the most unloved vegetable group in our country with most people just dabbling in iceberg lettuce at the local chain restaurant. I challenge you this week to reach out of your comfort zone and buy 7 dark green vegetables or herbs and include one of them in a home cooked meal every day.
Don't forget to add a healthy fat to those greens. The fat soluble vitamins in butter, olive oil, avocados, eggs, and animal fat can improve your chances of absorbing those nutrients in the greens. Some green vegetables are so amazing they have their own built in fats and proteins too. Sunflower sprouts have healthy fats and peas are full of proteins.
Healthy Green Vegetables List
- Arugula
- Bok Choy
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Collard Greens
- Dandelion Greens
- Lettuces
- Kale
- Mustard Greens
- Escarole
- Turnip greens
- Beet Greens
- Watercress
- Spinach
- Swiss Chard
- Parsley
- Cilantro
- Frisee
- Artichokes
- Cucumbers
Here are some of Food Foundations recipes to get your green on.
Please share your green recipes below!