Salad Reconstruction: Lettuce vs Spinach

Because I eat a lot of salads, I decided I should look at the nutritional value of my salad ingredients, one by one.

Of course I began by looking at the foundation of the salad, lettuce.

Well, I stopped there because if there is a problem with the foundation of anything, then it will need to be repaired before remodeling any other parts of the structure . . . right?

Right.

Lettuce contains the following:



Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup (30g)
Fat, Cholesterol, Sodium, Carbohydrates, Protein 0%

Vitamin A - 10%
Vitamin C - 2%
Calcium - 0%
Iron - 0%
Vitamin K - 60%
Folic Acid (Folate) - 16%
Phosphorus - 1%
Magnesium - 2%
Zinc - 1%

Est. Percent of Calories from:
Fat 0.0% Carbs 0.0%
Protein 0.0%

There really isn't a whole lot going on with a head of lettuce when it comes to getting a good supply of nutrition in a raw lunch. So I decided it was time to make a change in that area as quickly and as simply as possible.

While looking for alternatives, I thought I'd also look for more flavor. Options for a salad foundation don't go much farther than the various types of lettuce and spinach. It is also important that I replace the lettuce in my salad with something I can grow in my own garden along with my other salad ingredients.

My choice is Spinach:



Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup (30g)
Fat, Cholesterol, Carbohydrates 0%

Sodium - 23.7mg - 1%
Potassium - 167mg - 5%
Dietary Fiber - 0.7g - 3%
Sugars - 0.1g
Protein - 0.9g - 2%

Vitamin A - 56%
Vitamin C - 14%
Calcium - 3%
Iron - 5%
Vitamin D - 0%
Vitamin E - 3%
Vitamin K - 181%
Thiamin (B1 - 2%
Riboflavin (B2 - ) - 3%
Niacin (B3) - 1%
Vitamin B6 - 3%
Vitamin B12 - 0%
Magnesium - 6%
Panthothenic Acid - 0%
Zinc - 1%
Copper - 1%
Manganese - 13%

Est. Percent of Calories from:
Fat 12.9% Carbs 62.9%
Protein 51.4%

Spinach contains more Vitamin A & K which is important to my personal diet. This is especially true if I do not cook the spinach. Simply tearing it raw as a foundation to my salads retains the nutrients.

Being rich in Vitamin A, spinach can help protect my body against cancer, blindness, bone disease, heart disease and stroke.

It also lowers cholesterol levels.

The Vitamin A in spinach will also help my skin because it has the ability to heal acne, psoriasis and reduces wrinkles and fades age spots.

Spinach contains high amounts of Vitamin K.

At one time, this was the Vitamin that none of the other Vitamins would take to a party. It didn't seem to have any purpose in the body aside from controlling blood clotting. This made it appear to be very dull company.

Move over popular vitamins!

Recent studies have shown new and exciting things about Vitamin K that are bringing it to the forefront.

Vitamin K is not only found in spinach but also hangs around with vegetables like cauliflower, green cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. It can also be found in whole grain cereals, egg yolk, kelp and alfalfa.

Vitamin K helps the calcium in your body work to straighten your bones. This means people with Osteoporosis benefit from Vitamin K. It also works to help women absorb and retain calcium by reducing the calcium lost in urine. This is a good thing because over 10 million people have Osteoporosis and 80% of those are women.

The blood clotting benefits of Vitamin K makes it useful in preventing hemorrhage in babies and reducing the flow for women who experience excessive menstrual bleeding.

Personally, I find the most impressive benefits of Vitamin K are its ability to fight Alzheimer disease and prevent cancer.

(I must note here that as with anything else there is such a thing as too much Vitamin K. Too much Vitamin K can lead to liver problems or jaundice. If you plan to increase your Vitamin K intake do so by changing the foods you eat rather than buying a bottle of supplements to take. If you feel like you need to take supplements please talk to your physician first. He/she can check your Vitamin K levels and tell you exactly how much more you need in your diet.)

I now have a bed of spinach growing in the garden. Hopefully these newly germinated seedlings will grow and provide me with a delicious raw base for this year's summer time salads.

Changes in Diet

Today I'm going to just try to list the changes I have already gone through as far as my diet is concerned.

Since October I have not eaten any type of bread, buns, biscuits, cookies, cakes, crackers or pies. I also haven't eaten any type of pasta. I tried to eat wheat pasta as a substitute but I had the same allergic reactions to it as plain pasta. I removed cheddar cheese from my diet too.

I miss bread a lot, especially the biscuits. Pasta was a staple food in my diet. I wish there were a healthy alternative. Last night I was reading about Rice Pasta, which is a possible option for me. However, I would like to find others who have eaten it and get their opinions about the product.

I have to be honest here. My friend Gail commented on our picture that she could tell I have lost weight.

I am 4' 11" tall :) When you're finished chuckling at that height I'll tell you about my weight . . . . . . . . .

finished?

Okay, let's continue :)

In October when I started removing the things above from my diet, I weighed 115 pounds. That left me some room to lose weight without sacrificing my health. Within a month of removing those things from my diet, I lost 10 pounds. At that point my weight tapered off and I now weigh 105 pounds. I'll also note here that my mother, in an effort to lose weight started removing these same things from her diet. Her result was a weight loss of 20 pounds in one month.

I no longer spend every day of my life feeling bloated and sluggish. I feel more energetic and stronger than I did when I weighed just 10 pounds more and ate bread all the time.

I must confess, sacrificing bread, pasta and cake has been a very difficult thing for me to do. I bake a lot and take these cakes to friends and neighbors. As I hand them their dessert I am silently wishing I could take a seat and share the treat with them.

Some days, I feel an incurable hunger. I haven't figured out how to resolve that without feeling bloated and sluggish again. I guess it is possible that my body will adjust to these changes in time.

What am I eating more of? I eat a lot of salads. At least one meal a day is in its entirety, a salad. I can eat Mozzarella and Parmesan Cheeses in small portions without having any reactions, but rarely choose to do so. I eat my meats broiled or grilled for the most part. Batter and breading on meats (or anything for that matter) is a no-no for me. Rice. . .I eat a lot of rice. I make stir fries a lot more now and I see rice quickly becoming a substitute for pasta. But I still miss pasta. The only types of cereal I have found that I can eat are rice based, mostly Special K.

So basically my diet now consists of vegetables, grilled or broiled meats and rice.