Article # 390. Health Benefits of Lettuce!

Health Benefits of Lettuce!

Lettuce is one of the most delicate salad plants in this world, which is grown as a leafy vegetable. The vegetable is usually consumed as cold and raw, in salads, hamburgers, tacos and a number of other dishes. There are basically six different types of lettuce, namely Butterhead (Boston or Bibb), Chinese lettuce, Crisphead (Iceberg), Looseleaf, Romaine (Cos) and Summer Crisp (Batavian). All of them are used for the purpose of making salads. Usually, lettuce leaves are slightly bitter; however they might be specifically bred in a way that helps rid them of the bitterness. Being high in nutritional value, lettuce offers its users a number of health and nutrition benefits.

We need to ensure though that leafy greens make up the most of our salads. Lettuce is the king, and we will look at the top 5 benefits of eating lettuce.

1.       Lettuce is a live food with its rich vitamin content, especially the antiscorbutic vitamin C. It is bulky, low in calories but high in nutrient value. It is rich in mineral salts with the alkaline elements greatly predominating. So it helps to keep the blood clean, the mind alert and body in good health. If you find yourself acidic and want to restore your acid - alkali balance, then add lettuce to your diet.

2.      As lettuce is rich in cellulose, it increases the bulk of the intestinal contents and encourages peristalsis (Intestinal movement). It is, therefore, highly beneficial in curing chronic constipation. During chronic constipation, just eat a lettuce head + 1 apple, three times a day with sufficient rest and your constipation will be remedied within a day or two without the need for any costly supplements or colon cleansing products or medication (and their side effects).

3.      Lettuce is beneficial in the treatment of insomnia as it contains a sleep inducing substance called 'lectucarium'. Lettuce juice has been likened in effect to the sedative action of opium without the accompanying excitement. At nights when you find you cannot go to sleep, just eat a few leaves of lettuce, and see the difference. It's so mild that no digestion distress is caused even when you eat it before going to bed.

4.      Lettuce contains considerable amount of iron and supplies a good form of vegetable haemoglobin. It can, therefore, be used as a good tonic food for anaemia. The iron obtained in this way is absorbed by the body to a much greater degree than the inorganic iron tonic found in drug stores.

5.      Believe it or not, lettuce has 16% protein, 8% fat and 76% carbohydrates as its caloronutrient ratio. Under promise and under stated, BUT over deliver - The motto of lettuce!