Wellness
Your Guide to Leafy Greens
This handy guide to leafy greens will help you up your daily intake. And no, you won’t have to commit.
If there’s one essential in my diet, it’s leafy greens. The consensus among doctors and scientists is that there’s little that compares to the nutritional value of organic, raw greens. A diet full of them can ease or reverse just about any health condition, not to mention make your skin glow and waistline shrink (just ask Michelle Pfeiffer and many other stunning A-listers).
Raw, organic leafy greens are loaded with fiber and water — fiber scrubs and loosens up stuck toxins while water washes those toxins away. They’re also packed with vitamins, minerals, and plant-based substances that can protect you from heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. The wide variety of antioxidants and other disease-fighting compounds found in leafy greens are nearly impossible to get in any other food.
Plant chemicals (called phytochemicals) reduce inflammation, eliminate carcinogens, regulate the rate at which your cells reproduce (important when it comes to the reproduction of mutated and cancerous cells), and eliminate old cells. You can’t watch any morning news program without hearing the latest scientific research showing that people who eat more greens have…
- Lower risks of stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer’s disease, and heart disease.
- Lower risks of certain types of cancer and digestive problems.
- Reduced risk of kidney stones and osteopenia and osteoporosis.
- Lower biomarkers for oxidative stress — an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to detoxify their harmful effects.
- Higher cognitive test scores. (Load up on kale before that big presentation!)
This handy guide to leafy greens will help you up your daily intake. And no, you won’t have to commit to a salad-only diet. Dig in to discover which greens take the top nutrition prize and how to prepare, store, and enjoy the wide variety that’s available:
Natasha Barnes
Spinach! Popeye the sailor man is my hero when I was a kid. But never liked the green stuff back then, Now all grown up i can say it tastes good and healthy too. that cartoon really knows its greens.
MICHELLE
KALE!!! It’s the best tasting superfood green leafy I have ever tasted… and of course, the magical spinach that no matter how much you put on a dish will magically disappear!
Robin Collins
popeye really know what the good stuff is right? spinach that delicious leaf with so many nutrients. i just need the forearms to grow now please hahaha
KZ Evans
great guide, been eating most of the listed greens just cause I don’t eat most vine veggies. kale and spinach are my faves right now. really great with my post workout meal.
Emma Clark
Thank you so much for sharing information about leafy greens. Leafy greens have so many benefits for our health. Keep sharing what you know.
Tiffany Watts
Good read, nice article on the benefits of the healthy greens. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Lena Dzeko
Thanks for the post. I grow most of the above, but have never tried eating the turnip greens. Will try them as they are already growing in my garden. My sister is a big fan (we live together). She always goes on about how good they are, but for no reason at all I’ve been very prejudging about it. I know, I must try it!!
Jae Medina
Good article. Thanks for sharing. Simply love all of these. Dr Marina Gafanovich did a great job laying out the infographic, clean and easy to read. Keeping this one handy. I can honestly say that I’ve learnt a lot from this. Thank you again!
Sonja Fallow
Very informative. Thank you. Love, love turnip greens and grow them every year, as well as a wide variety of heritage romaines. I’ve been lazy with the others, so will have to try a few new recipes when I get to the farmers’ market again.
Christina Norelli
Love them all. We are growing collard greens and kale in our garden this summer. We have also been harvesting dandelion greens which are supposed to be packed with nutrients. As my Daughter remarked some years ago, “Let’s throw out the beets and eat the leaves.” 🙂
Elin Hanks
I see a lot of posts like this on other sites but without references to the scientific literature that supports these claims, it is pretty much worthless. Seeing this is from a doctor, I’ve found all the information here very comforting. Thank you.