Lettuce is a vegetable that, due to its properties, has been associated with weight loss and a healthy lifestyle since the dawn of time. One can even encounter information that it has a… negative caloric balance. Is this possible?
Looking for so-called “miracle diets”, one can increasingly come across the concept of negative calories. This buzzword mainly applies to the popular two-week weight loss diet. Do negative calories really have a raison d’être in the real world? Unfortunately – because it sounds like a beautiful fairy tale – there are no products with negative caloric balance. So we can assume that the concept of negative calories is a repeated myth that finds extensive use in marketing. Stories about food products causing more energy loss than they themselves provide should go in the trash right away.
The concept of negative calories is associated with low-calorie foods, among which vegetables and fruits are most often mentioned. These include pineapple, watermelon, grapefruit, cucumbers and broccoli, among others. In terms of low calorie content, however, no product can compare with the queen of vegetables, lettuce.
As we have already established, negative calories are a 100% myth. Despite the fact that no product meets the requirements of this assumption, the closest to it is lettuce, which almost … has no calories. Suffice it to say that one sizable leaf of iceberg lettuce has only 4 calories and, what’s more, it contains 0.5 grams of fiber! This, and no other state of affairs, means that we can confidently consume lettuce in as large quantities as we feel like it – even during a weight loss diet.
Thanks to its extremely low calorie content and high fiber and folic acid content, lettuce accelerates fat burning, supports metabolic processes, and improves intestinal function. If we take into account the aforementioned health-promoting properties of this green vegetable, then information about the supposedly negative calories that lettuce can offer seems almost justified. At the same time, it is worth remembering not to enrich it with excessive caloric additives such as oils, sauces or mayonnaise, if possible. How else can our body benefit from eating lettuce?
In addition to the aforementioned properties, lettuce is a natural source of vitamins B, E and C, as well as many valuable elements such as iron, magnesium and potassium. What’s more, it contains powerful oxidants that help protect the body from yellow tissue degeneration. In addition, lettuce deacidifies, strengthens the nervous system, improves digestion and increases the body’s overall immunity. The icing on the cake, on the other hand, is that it is really tasty and very easy to incorporate into your daily menu.
It is worth realizing that lettuce includes many more types of vegetables than just butter lettuce, which is well known from store shelves. Among its types we can also find iceberg lettuce, arugula, romaine lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, radicchio or radicchio. Each of them differs slightly in taste and nutrients, but they all have in common a salutary effect on our health. If you are thinking of enriching your diet with lettuce, you must try each of the mentioned types!
main photo: unsplash.com/Petr Magera
