You surely have heard it from your parents, and the dietitian on television. You have come across it on the Internet. "Eat your greens."
"But why?" you ask. "I eat some vegetables, why do some of them have to be green?"
Kale, a nutritionally packed powerhouse of a vegetable.
Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll are a family of green pigments that are found in the chloroplasts of plants, giving leaves and other vegetables their respective color. They are also found in some algae and bacteria. Its utility to the plant is critical. It is what enables photosynthesis. Without it, the plant could not take in energy from the ultraviolet rays from the sun. It also has many health benefits to the animals that consume vegetables, leafy or otherwise.
First, it is a powerful antioxidant. Its potency for attacking free radicals in the body ranks among the highest.
In addition, chlorophyll is also a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. It is very sought after in liquid form for the advancement of phytomedicine against various diseases that are due to chronic inflammation in the body. The research done by the Journal of Inflammation is one of the most revealing.
It protects against many types of cancers, most notably that of the colon.
Chlorophyll's regeneration capacity helps our bodies produce red blood cells, and in addition, fights against anemia by making iron more bioavailable in our food.
It also acts as a hunger suppressant. If you are overweight, eating a lot of dark, leafy greens has the advantage of having low calories, and will also make you less hungry. Salads using spinach, kale, or romaine lettuce as opposed to iceberg lettuce are powerful weight loss promoters, providing you do not flood them with an excess of high calorie dressing or cheese.
These and more benefits discussed here are a reason to consume copious amounts of greens.
Specific Micronutrients
Fruits and vegetables all are part of a large, diverse, and essential food group to achieve optimal health. The operative word being diversity. While all fruits and vegetables contain helpful nutrients, they do not all have the same amounts of micronutrients. It is best to have a variety of antioxidants and anti-inflammatories in your body at any given time. This is because different micronutrients help ward off and fight different types of diseases better than others.
Hence, while eating a particular vegetable might be helpful, it is not optimally healthy to only eat one or two types of vegetables over a long term. Leafy greens and other green vegetables contain specific micronutrients that other fruits and vegetables may not have, or may have in much smaller quantities.
Low Calorie
Alluded to in a previous paragraph, green vegetables tend to be very low in calorie count. It is impossible to get fat by loading up on greens. You can eat them in greater quantities than, for instance, a fleshy fruit such as a peach or plum. While fleshy fruits are also a valuable part of the diet, they are also higher in sugar, carbohydrates, and calorie count.
