Green vegetables, especially in the summer, are easily available, fresh, healthy, contain valuable folic acid and many vitamins. They also have an optimistic color, let’s reach for them whenever we can. Dishes made of them are easy to prepare, light and tasty. They support slimming. What gives us eating green, leafy vegetables, what nutrients can we look for in them and are there any contraindications to their use?
In the summer, it is nice to look at a plate full of fresh, healthy vegetables, they please our eye but also have a positive effect on our health. Green vegetables are low in calories, contain a lot of vitamin C and many pigments from the group of carotenoids, which are valuable for our body, although they are masked by chlorophyll. Why is chlorophyll so important to our health? It is a green dye that allows us to cleanse the body, it binds a large part of toxic compounds and reduces the amount of toxic substances reaching the tissues directly. It has an extremely important anti-cancer effect. It contains a lot of spinach. This vegetable, once hated by preschoolers, has been loved by millions of people. It does not contain as much iron as once thought, but it compensates for our body with a large dose of folic acid, thanks to which our body is stimulated to produce more red blood cells. It definitely improves digestion and contains a large amount of vitamin C and A. It should be one of the elements of the diet for slimming people, because it consists mostly of water, so it is low in calories.
A forgotten leafy vegetable, once used not only in the kitchen by our grandmothers sorrel. These sour green leaves growing on our meadows are rich in iron and contain more than spinach. It contains a lot of vitamin C that facilitates the absorption of iron, so it can prevent anemia. Because of the vitamin C, it was once used as a cure for scurvy. It was used in compresses for swelling and skin irritation. It has one more important feature, thanks to the high content of chlorophyll, it helps to fight bad breath by preventing the growth of bacteria that affect fermentation in the stomach.
It is the most popular and probably the most accessible of all green, leafy vegetables lettuce. It is not seasonal, you can buy it all year round, it is low in calories, it contains a lot of vitamins: C, A, D and E and B vitamins. Also thanks to the chlorophyll contained in lettuce leaves, it has a bactericidal effect and helps fight inflammation. It facilitates the cleansing of the body, contains lutein that protects our macula, and thus eating lettuce has a positive effect on our eyesight.
Green vegetables have only beneficial properties. However, there are several reasons why some people cannot eat them. Sorrel and spinach should not be eaten by people suffering from rheumatism, kidney disease, arthritis, gallstones, and suffering from stomach ailments. Everything is to blame for oxalic acid, which easily reacts with calcium to form a compound deposited in the joints and urinary tract. We often eat cold soup made of young beet leaves in the summer, diabetics should beware of this vegetable due to its high glycemic index.
However, the most important for our health are the predominant positive elements contained in green vegetables. So let’s eat them in the summer when they are fresh.