Health & Beauty

What is the nutritional value of lettuce?

What is the nutritional value of lettuce? Is lettuce primarily a luxury product, a little something crunchy for your plate, or is there more to lettuce than meets the eye? After some research, we discovered that lettuce contains a lot of water plus much more. 

Water in lettuce
It's a fact that lettuce contains a lot of water. No less than 95% of lettuce consists of water. But there is nothing wrong with that. Lettuce ensures hydration of your body and a salad goes a long way to providing the two litres that you should drink every day. Because there is so much water in lettuce, you can only eat it fresh. It's not possible to freeze, dry or can it.

Lettuce is low in calories
At the risk of stating the obvious, lettuce contains few calories. Depending on the type, 100 grams contains around 13 to 16 calories.  So, you can eat lettuce until you weigh an ounce ;-) Be careful with dressings, toppings and other calorie-rich salad ingredients if you want to eat salad and are watching your weight. These are often hidden calorie bombs. Lettuce also contains fibre. The amount is highly dependent on the type of lettuce. For example, a romaine lettuce contains twice as much fibre as a head of iceberg lettuce.

Vitamins and minerals in lettuce
100 grams of lettuce is packed full of vitamins. For example, there is 21% of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of vitamin A in lettuce, 18% of folic acid and 5% of vitamin C. Does that surprise you? In addition to these vitamins, lettuce is also rich in important minerals such as iron, calcium and potassium. Iceberg lettuce contains slightly fewer vitamins and minerals than other lettuce varieties. Dark lettuce leaves or oak leaves often contain more nutrients than light-coloured leaves. Our tip; try a variety of leaves in your salad for the vitamins and for a nice mix of soft and crunchy leaves. 

Variation with lettuce
So now that you know there is more to lettuce, give it a go! Add lettuce to a mash pot, a noodle soup, a smoothie or your sandwich next to salad of course.