For people that salad tastes good, it is the perfect summer dish. The leafy vegetable is a perfect match for sausages, Grill, quickly prepared and with a variety of ingredients and Dressings combine. In addition, salad is healthy: He has hardly any calories, provides fiber and plenty of water as well as various valuable minerals and vitamins.
What and how much, however, is different from variety to variety. Iceberg lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, arugula, chicory, endive, Radicchio – the most popular varieties of lettuce in comparison:
- Water, calorie and fiber content
- Vitamin and mineral content
- Pollutant Load
- Conclusion: The healthiest(n) Lettuce(n)
Water, calorie and fiber content of different varieties of lettuce
1.5 liters of water you should drink daily. Whom this is difficult, the should be more frequent iceberg lettuce food: With nearly 96 percent of water content, this type of Lettuce quasi a drink. The calorie content is also only slightly higher than the water: Self-arugula, cream cake, under the salads, it provides only a ridiculous 24 calories per 100 grams. For comparison: The calorie content of Apples is approximately twice as high.
Of course, you can also have a salad (even lettuce) to the calorie bomb if you it with the sauce and the side dishes (e.g., cheese, meat, nuts) exaggerates. For orientation: A tablespoon of yogurt dressing about 20 calories, a tablespoon of olive oil to about 120, a handful of nuts is about 200.
By the way: The water is in the cells of the leaves. These come with salt or sugar in contact, the cells of your water. This is the reason, the salad limp, if you let it too long in the Dressing are. To make the salad crunchy remains, should you salad therefore possible to eat fresh and the Dressing not too strong salt and sweet.
Vitamin and mineral content of different varieties of lettuce
Many of us know spinach only as a green cube out of the freezer turn, when a thaw with a “Blubb” in a creamy Puree. While raw spinach is also excellent for a fresh summer salad. What is its mineral content is concerned, is spinach even the king under the salad: 250 grams of spinach covers a healthy adult already
- almost his entire daily requirement of iron,
- a third of your daily Magnesium and calcium requirements, as well as
- a quarter of the daily requirements for potassium.
Important: spinach contains oxalic acid, which the absorption of iron in the intestine is hindered. Vitamin C , however, supports the intestine in the absorption of iron. That is why it is wise to combine spinach with Vitamin C-containing sauces or side dishes, with orange juice or lemon dressing, steamed Broccoli and/or red peppers.
Also the vitamin content of spinach is significantly higher than the other salad places. In order to meet his Vitamin C needs, ranging, for example, a 200-gram Serving of spinach per day. In principle, spinach also delivers a lot of beta-carotene, which the body can split to Vitamin A. However, he can absorb only a part of the beta carotene. How much, varies from person to person and also depends on what else he’s eaten.
Tip: fat improves the beta-carotene absorption in the small intestine. Therefore, it is recommended to combine the salad with vinegar-Oil-Dressing, fatty fish or nuts.
Pollutant load of different varieties of lettuce
Lettuce contains a lot of Good, but also substances that can harm the body above a certain concentration. Loaded salad with can be
- Residues of pesticides such as chlorate and perchlorate, as well as
- Nitrate.
Pesticide residues in different varieties of lettuce
Pesticides are chemicals that farmers use to control pests to combat. On lettuce and other plant foods radicals and removal collect products of these chemicals. The manufacturer must ensure that the amount of the residues is so low that the consumer will not face any health dangers.
Typically, this is achieved the manufacturers also: In a Test of the Stiftung Warentest showed that chicory, lamb’s lettuce and arugula have significantly lower amounts of residues than the legally stipulated maximum quantities-allows you to specify values for pesticides. In the category “pesticides” were given the chicory and field salad a grade of “satisfactory”, the arugula at least a “sufficient”.
In an analysis of the Bavarian state office for health and food safety (LGL) was shown to be toxic the pesticide burden of most of the tested salads for the health. Relatively large amounts of residues found in the laboratory on lettuce, head lettuce and arugula. The statutory limit has been exceeded, only individual samples.
Nitrate content in different lettuce varieties
Nitrate is not an artificially manufactured chemical, but a natural substance that is contained in many foods, including cheese, cured meat and salad. Nitrate is not toxic. The body can break it down, however, the nitrosamines, in animal cancer have been proven.
In the Test of Stiftung Warentest and the study of the LGL showed that arugula is quite strong with a nitrate is. According to the Federal center for nutrition (BZfE) have also iceberg lettuce, Endive, lamb’s lettuce and lettuce high levels of nitrates on. Relatively little nitrate is in Radicchio and chicory.
Why does lettuce nitrate?Nitrate is formed when micro-organisms of manure (manure) and other organic substances in the soil to decompose and break down. Lettuce and other plants take in nitrate through their roots and store it in their leaves and stems. That is why you take on salad in General, more nitrates than other vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, of which it eats only the fruit.
Conclusion: What type of Lettuce is the healthiest is it?
Sources
Online information of the German Federal centre for nutrition (BZfE): www.bzfe.de (retrieval date: 5.11.2019)
Online information of the German society for nutrition: www.dge.de (retrieval date: 5.11.2019)
Online-information of the Bavarian state office for health and food safety: www.lgl.bayern.de (retrieval date: 5.11.2019)
Consumer safety and residues of plant protection products. Online information of the German Federal Institute for risk assessment (BfR): www.bfr.bund.de (retrieval date: 5.11.2019)
How can I cover my iron requirement? Online information of the Institute for quality and efficiency in healthcare (IQWiG): www.gesundheitsinformation.de (status: 7.3.2018)
Biesalski, C.: Nutritional Medicine. Thieme, Stuttgart, 2017
Chicory, field salad & Arugula in the Test: How much pollutants are in there? Stiftung Warentest, Issue 04/2017, P. 10-15 Were
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*The contribution of “head-to-head-race: What type of Lettuce is the healthiest?” is published by Onmeda. Contact with the executives here.