Leafy green vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, offering a wealth of health benefits. They are low in calories and packed with essential vitamins and minerals. The USDA recommends that adults consume at least 3-4 servings of vegetables each day, emphasizing the importance of including leafy greens. Incorporating more green vegetables into your diet can be easier than you think. This article provides numerous strategies to increase your intake of these vital foods, ensuring you reap their numerous health benefits.
The Nutritional Power of Green Vegetables
Green vegetables are more than just a side dish; they are a cornerstone of a healthy diet. They are rich in antioxidants like vitamin A and vitamin C, and abundant in vitamin K, potassium, and iron.
"These nutrients provide many benefits, such as boosting the immune system during those cold winter months and keeping the heart healthy," says a nutritionist. The natural fiber in leafy greens helps you feel full longer, as the nutrients remain in the stomach longer due to the fiber content.
Brain Health Benefits
Adding a daily serving of green leafy vegetables to your diet may promote brain health. Studies suggest that individuals who consume one serving of green, leafy vegetables experience a slower rate of decline in memory and thinking skills compared to those who rarely or never eat them.
While these study results do not definitively prove that eating green, leafy vegetables slows brain aging, they do show an association. Further research is needed to confirm these findings across different populations and through randomized trials to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
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General Guidelines for Vegetable Consumption
Ideally, vegetables should make up the majority of your plate. Aim to have half your serving consist of leafy greens like spinach or a simple salad, and the other half include various other vegetables such as grilled peppers, asparagus, peas, green beans, or squash.
However, be mindful of how you prepare your vegetables. Boiling vegetables can cause vitamins to leach out into the water.
Simple Strategies to Incorporate More Greens
Here are several practical ways to increase your consumption of green vegetables:
Start with a Green Smoothie:
One of the easiest ways to include more greens is to start the day strong with a green smoothie for breakfast. Use real, whole fruits instead of fruit juices. Whole fruits provide fiber, which is often missing in juices. Add one or two protein sources to balance the sugars in the fruits.
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Add Powdered Greens:
You can get the benefits of whole leafy greens by adding a scoop of powdered greens to your smoothie, water, or favorite non-dairy milk. These powders can contain an entire day’s worth of fruits and vegetables, making them ideal for ensuring you meet your daily needs if you struggle to eat enough veggies. However, it’s still beneficial to incorporate whole fruits and vegetables into your day when possible.
Incorporate Greens into Soups:
Greens such as spinach, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, and bok choy can easily be added to soups. These greens pair especially well in soups with sweet potato or hearty proteins like chicken or turkey.
Add Greens to Wraps and Sandwiches:
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Adding a handful of greens, such as spinach or green leaf lettuce, to a wrap or sandwich is a great way to add more greens to your lunch. Both green leaf and spinach have fiber in them as well.
Mix Greens into Omelets and Egg Scrambles:
Incorporate spinach, kale, finely chopped broccoli, green onion, and more into omelets or egg scrambles. The options are practically endless. Arugula, beet greens, and parsley make tasty additions to omelets.
Explore Different Ways to Prepare Kale:
Kale is packed with calcium, vitamin K, and antioxidants like vitamin C. If you're not a fan of raw kale, try making kale chips by roasting kale in the oven. Another option is massaged kale salad. If you find kale isn't for you, try spinach or bok choy instead.
Kale Chips Recipe:
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
- Wash and chop one bunch of curly kale, removing the stem.
- Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and toss to coat the leaves.
- Sprinkle with kosher salt, a bit of black pepper, and some garlic powder.
- Spread the kale on a baking sheet and roast in the preheated oven for about 8-10 minutes.
- The kale should be slightly brown on the edges and significantly reduced in size.
Massaged Kale Salad Recipe:
- Rinse and destem 4-5 leaves of curly kale and rip them into pieces with your hands.
- In a medium bowl, massage the kale with a bit of kosher salt.
- Add your favorite toppings, such as pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and craisins.
Prepare Greens in Advance for Easy Snacking:
Make greens more convenient to grab by preparing them in advance. Greens like broccoli, snap peas, edamame, celery, and green bell pepper can be prepared on the weekends and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
Utilize Vegetable Scraps:
Get the most out of the entire vegetable by keeping the scraps and extracting the nutrients from them.
Freeze Greens to Prevent Waste:
If greens are starting to wilt, freeze them for later use. Freezing locks in the nutrients, preventing further loss as they age.
Leafy Green Vegetable Chips
Leafy greens chips are a fast and easy substitute for the high calorie alternative. Simply wash 4 handfuls of kale, tear into pieces, and then toss in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Next, arrange the chips on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Bake for 10- 15 minutes at 375 degrees, turning them half way through.
Drink Your Greens
Boost your daily intake by drinking your greens! Green smoothies or juices can be a great option.
Add Greens to Soups and Stews
Leafy greens such as collards, mustard greens, beet greens, and Swiss chard can be a great addition to soups and stews.
Add Greens to Omelets
Arugula, beet greens, and parsley make for tasty options added to omelets. A fantastic way to start your day packed full of protein and healthy greens!
Add Herbs
Take advantage of herbs to add flavor and nutrition!
Specific Greens and Their Benefits
- Spinach: Just 1 cup of spinach contains 105% of the Daily Recommended Intake (DRI) for vitamin A. Spinach is also the second-highest vitamin K containing food, which is essential in blood clotting and bone health.
- Collard Greens, Mustard Greens, Beet Greens, and Swiss Chard: These are excellent additions to soups and stews.
Incorporating Greens During Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
Eating vegetables during pregnancy and breastfeeding is crucial. What you eat during these times can influence your baby’s taste preference for years to come. During pregnancy, the baby tastes the flavors of what you eat through amniotic fluid, while during breastfeeding, the flavors come through breastmilk. Studies have found that foods eaten while the baby is in the womb and while breastfeeding are accepted more readily once the infant begins eating solid foods.
Ideas for Introducing Greens to Infants and Toddlers
- Purees: Steam and blend leafy greens with other vegetables to form a puree. Try combinations like kale + sweet potato or spinach + broccoli + butternut squash.
- Soft Finger Foods: Cook the greens and finely chop (or puree) them to add to finger-food recipes. Or, sauté them with seasoning, cut into finger-food-sized pieces, and let your infant eat them straight from their plate.
- Toddler Foods: Sauté spinach or kale with garlic, olive oil, and a sprinkle of seasoning. Or try kale chips!
Recipes for Infants and Toddlers
- Broccoli, Spinach, Avocado Baby Puree
- Avocado Green Smoothie for Baby (thicken for a puree)
- Freezer-Friendly Spinach Waffles
- Pasta with Kale and Spinach Pesto
- Green Parmesan ‘Chips’
- Kale Pesto Chicken Quesadilla
- Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Bites
Other Creative Ways to Eat More Greens
- Start off dinner with a fresh salad: Start off dinner with a fresh romaine or mesclun salad tossed with fresh, crisp veggies like carrots, bell peppers, radishes and cucumbers.
- Serve up a side of spinach, kale or collard greens: Serve up a side of spinach, kale or collard greens.
- Make a watercress soup: Instead of serving heavy, cream-based soups, whip up a refreshing watercress soup.
- Make vegetable chips: These vegetable chips are a fast and easy substitute for the high calorie alternative.
- Add them to wraps, sandwiches, even to your burger patties: Piling on the greens is easy when they compliment or blend in with the other flavors of your sandwich or wrap.
- Toss them in your soups, stews, chili, and so on: If I have veggies I need to use before they go bad, I chop everything I have up and boil it in chicken broth and a can of tomatoes.
- Add them to your main dish for dinner: I love to add chard, arugula, or kale to whatever I’m having for dinner. Tacos? Add extra lettuce, or cabbage if they’re chicken tacos.
- Make preparing and eating them easy! Once you’ve bought (or grown) the greens you need, wash, cut and prep them so they’re ready to be eaten anytime. When it’s time to make a meal, you can literally grab them out of the fridge and make whatever you feel like!
Simple Ways to Add Dark Green Leafy Vegetables to Your Daily Diet
- Eat them raw in a salad: Romaine, arugula, mesclun, baby spinach, kale, watercress, and radish greens make a great salad base. Top it with chopped bell pepper, cucumbers, shredded carrots, chopped broccoli, sunflower seeds and perhaps even some parmesan cheese, chopped apple or roasted cubed butternut squash. Toss with an oil-based dressing.
- Sauté them with olive oil, salt and pepper: Cook some chopped garlic and red pepper flakes in the hot oil before adding the greens, or finish them with a squeeze of citrus juice or vinegar for extra flavor. Bok choy, collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach, turnip greens and Swiss chard are popular choices. Sautéed dark green vegetables can be added to pasta, lasagna, omelets or frittatas, grain bowls, casseroles and meatballs. Or use them to top pizza.
- Add them to soup during the last few minutes of cooking: Bok choy, kale, Swiss chard, and spinach are popular leafy green choices. A large handful will wilt down to nearly nothing. Broccoli is also a nice addition.
- Use dark leafy greens as wraps instead of tortillas or pita bread (or IN your wrap!) Collard greens, Swiss chard, and butter lettuce work well as wraps. Try filling a collard green leaf with hummus, shredded carrots, tomato, olives, and feta cheese and roll it like a burrito for a filling and nutrient-packed lunch.
- Blend them into smoothies: You can add a cup or two of mild leafy greens such as spinach or kale to your smoothie. Add a scoop of Greek yogurt to make it more satiating with the addition of protein and fat.
- Make a pesto sauce: Basil pesto is the most well-known variety, but a pesto can be made with any dark green vegetable. Using a food processor or blender, blend 4 cups of greens of your choice (or a mix of different greens) with 1 garlic clove and ½ cup nuts until finely chopped. Next, drizzle in olive oil while continuing to process the pesto until it is the consistency you like. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add Parmesan cheese if you’d like.
Handling and Preparing Greens Safely
Like any fresh produce, leafy greens need to be handled and prepared safely to avoid food-borne illnesses.