Amazing benefits of Lettuce

Crispy, green/crimson-red colored lettuce is one of the incredible leafy vegetables packed with essential nutrients that benefit health. Indeed, it is among the most sought-after greens, be it in your crunchy, green salads or healthy sandwiches!

Its leaves exude milk like fluid (sap) when cut, and hence their name derived from Latin, lactuca for milk.

1- Lettuce leaves are one of the very low calorie green-vegetables. 100 g fresh greens provide just 15 calories. Nonetheless, they are the store house of many phytonutrients that have health promoting and disease prevention properties.

2- Helps Weight Loss 

Lettuce contains fiber and cellulose. Besides filling you up, fiber improves your digestion. Improving your digestion may not sound like a good thing for losing weight, but it is actually essential for long term weight control.
Fiber also helps remove bile salts from the body. When the body replaces these salts it breaks down cholesterol to do so. This is why lettuce is also good for your heart.

3- Vitamins in lettuce are plentiful. Its fresh leaves are an excellent source of several Vitamin A and beta carotenes. Just 100 g of fresh, raw-lettuce provides 247% of daily vitamin A, and 4443 µg of beta-carotene (Carotenes convert into vitamin A in the body; 2 µg of carotene is considered equivalent to 1 IU of vitamin A). These compounds have antioxidant properties. Vitamin A is required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin, and is also essential for vision. Consumption of natural fruits and vegetables rich in flavonoids helps to protect the body from lung and oral cavity cancers.

4- Fresh leaves contain good amounts folate and vitamin C. Folates are part of co-factors in the enzyme metabolism required for DNA synthesis and therefore, play a vital role in prevention of the neural tube defects in the baby (fetus) during pregnancy.

5- It also contains good amounts of minerals like iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium, which are very essential for body metabolism. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Copper is required in the production of red blood cells. Iron is essential for red blood cell formation.