Meals of greens are very tempting but you’ll always want to make sure to know a few important things about what you eat. Lettuce, a leafy vegetable with a neutral taste, surely adds heft and nutrition to any meal safe for people whether one has diabetes or not.
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Lettuce is available all year round and can be bought in any supermarkets. It is best enjoyed when it’s fresh and crisp. You can eat them along with hamburgers, sandwiches or tacos. It is also served for fast and easy salads and seen in soups and wraps. They have a mild delicate flavor, but can become bitter depending on how it was grown. With all the varieties of lettuces, leaf lettuces taste better, but iceberg are crisper and juicier. Batavia-type lettuces, popular in Europe, are midway between the two, producing a compact head in the middle of large, dark-green leaves.
Health Benefits
Leafy vegetables such as lettuce are naturally healthy food beneficial in every person’s health. All varieties of lettuce are very low in calories, and have high water content. It is effective for diet food offering you several diabetes health advantages.
- Lettuce’s spine and ribs provide dietary fiber that helps to delay the absorption of carbohydrate and lessen the chances of sudden rise in blood sugar levels. Dark green lettuce leaves indicate higher fiber, flavor and nutritional value.
- Its fresh leaves contains vitamin A and beta-carotene: a source of vitamin A itself, preventing eyesight problems and blindness due to nerve damage brought by diabetes. The darker green, the more beta-carotene.
- Lettuce is low in calories in order to promote weight loss improving your blood glucose control
- It also contains good amounts of micronutrients for a diabetic diet such as vitamin K, B-6 and C, iron, folate, thiamine, potassium and manganese.
- Including lettuce in your diet reduces the development of insulin resistance to regulate the level of sugar in your bloodstream.
- It contains little amount of carbohydrates, protein and a small amount of fat. Carbohydrate can be stored as fat and fat and protein can both be converted into glucose.
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Nutritional Facts
Lettuce (Butterhead)
|
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) |
|
|
Energy |
55 kJ (13 kcal) |
|
Carbohydrates |
2.23 g |
|
– Sugars |
0.94 |
|
– Dietary fibre |
1.1 g |
|
Fat |
0.22 g |
|
Protein |
1.35 g |
|
Water |
95.63 g |
| Vitamin A equiv. | 166 μg (21%) |
| – beta-carotene | 1987 μg (18%) |
| – lutein and zeaxanthin | 1223 μg |
| Thiamine (vit. B1) | 0.057 mg (5%) |
| Riboflavin (vit. B2) | 0.062 mg (5%) |
| Pantothenic acid (B5) | 0.15 mg (3%) |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.082 mg (6%) |
| Folate (vit. B9 | 73 μg (18%) |
| Vitamin C | 3.7 mg (4%) |
| Vitamin E | 0.18 mg (1%) |
| Vitamin K | 102.3 μg (97%) |
| Calcium | 35 mg (4%) |
| Iron | 1.24 mg (10%) |
| Magnesium | 13 mg (4%) |
| Manganese | 0.179 mg (9%) |
| Phosphorus | 33 mg (5%) |
| Potassium | 238 mg (5%) |
| Sodium | 5 mg (0%) |
| Zinc | 0.2 mg (2%) |
|
Source: USDA Nutrient Database |
|
Leaf Lettuce (One cup raw leaf lettuce, chopped)
| Calories | 9 |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.3 |
| Protein | 1 gram |
| Carbohydrates | 1.34 grams |
| Vitamin A | 1456 IU |
| Vitamin C | 13.44 |
| Calcium | 20.16 |
| Iron | 0.62 |
| Potassium | 162.4 mg |
Fresh Romaine Lettuce (Serving Size: 1/2 cup, shredded)
|
Calories |
0 |
|
Fat |
0 g |
|
Saturated Fat |
0 g |
|
Cholesterol |
0 mg |
|
Carbohydrate |
1 g |
|
Protein |
<1 g |
|
Dietary Fiber |
<1 g |
|
Sodium |
2 mg |
|
Calcium |
8 mg |
|
Potassium |
58 mg |
|
Vitamin A |
1,365 IU |
|
Folic Acid |
32 micrograms |
|
Vitamin C |
6 mg |
|
Carotenoids |
1,362 micrograms |
