Lettuce!
Essentially, iceberg lettuce simply looks pretty but only serves to take up space. The watery leaves contain almost no nutrients. The next time you find yourself at a salad bar, try the more nutritional greens -- which we will run through for you now.
Romaine is not your garden-variety lettuce, rather this celery-flavored green is one of the best vegetable sources of beta-carotene. It contains 712 micrograms per cup. High levels of beta-carotene can aid in the inhibited growth of prostate-cancer cells by as much as 50-percent.
Serving Suggestions: Toss it with croutons, diced tomato, avocado, and slices of red onion. Cover with a light Parmesan ranch dressing and top with black olives.
Arugula - Calcium is the essential nutrient in arugula. One cup of these mustard-flavored leaves has 10-percent of the bone-building mineral found in a glass of milk and 100-percent less saturated fat. There is also magnesium in every bite for more protection against osteoporosis.
Serving suggestions: Add diced red or green apples, dried cranberries and dried blueberries. Douse the entire mixture with a dressing made of three parts extra-virgin olive oil and one part lemon juice.
Watercress is a pepper-flavored HEPA filter for your body. Watercress contains a phytochemical that may prevent airborne pollutants from causing lung cancer.
Serving suggestions: Mix with red onion, watermelon, cantaloupe and slivered almonds and top with equal amounts of lemon and orange juice.
Endive is slightly bitter and a little crisp. It offers twice the fiber of iceberg lettuce as a nutritional benefit. A cup of endive also provides almost 20-percent of your daily requirement of folate. People who do not get enough of this essential B vitamin may have a 50-percent greater risk of developing hard disease.
Serving Suggestions: Mix endive with walnuts and bits of diced ripe pear. Top with low fat blue cheese dressing.
Mustard Greens - Packed with the amino acid tyrosine, these spicy, crunchy greens are beneficial in improving and protecting memory and concentration.
Serving Suggestions: Mix the greens with snow peas and diced onion, ham and Muenster cheese. Top with sherry vinaigrette dressing.
Bok Choy - Think of this as a cabbage-flavored multivitamin. A bowl of bok choy has 23-percent of your daily requirement of vitamin A and a third of your vitamin C, along with three cancer-fighting phytochemicals: flavonoids, isothiocyanates, and dithiolthione. In short -- it is very good for you.
Serving Suggestions: Slice it thin and mix it with grated fresh ginger, orange slices, mushrooms and sesame seeds. Sprinkle with soy sauce and toss.
Spinach is a top source of lutein and zeaxanthin, two powerful antioxidants that protect your vision from the ravages of aging.
Serving Suggestions: Mix it with some chicken breast, black olives, peach slices and red bell pepper and top with honey-mustard dressing.
Kohlrabi tastes like something between cabbage and turnip. Each serving contains nearly 25-percent of your daily requirement of potassium (to help keep a lid on your blood pressure), along with glucosinolate, a phytochemical that may prevent some cancers.
Serving Suggestions: Slice the bulb very thin and toss it with carrot slices, grated cabbage, diced celery, and chopped onions. Top with your favorite vinaigrette.
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