Green Leafy Vegetables: For Super Nutrition and Balance!
Green leafy vegetables are a mineral rich food that contain high levels of chlorophyll. Added to green smoothies and other
healthy recipes,
they are especially building for muscle and tissue strength.
Dark, green, leafy vegetables are making there way into the lime light of popular nutrition. Many people these days have expanded past the "iceberg lettuce" phase and are eating more micro greens in salads and using kale, as well as other greens, in cooking recipes.
Leafy Green Vegetables - Alkalize and Balance
Leafy greens are alkaline in nature. They are a perfect addition to a healthy diet plan for they offer a great way to alkalize and balance most meals. There fibrous nature cleans out the entire digestive tract as they move through the stomach and colon.
Greens are essentially a balancing food. This means they help to balance heavier foods, acidic foods and sweet foods. They combined well with nuts and seeds, which tend to be more acidic. In addition, they are also great balancers for high sugar foods, like fruit or natural sweeteners.
Eat Your Greens for Fuel!
Green leafy vegetables, because of their high mineral content, tend to satisfy hunger by feeding the body what it needs, high quality fuel. After drinking a glass of fresh green raw juice, you will feel calm from the minerals it supplies, as it nourishes and grounds the body.
Greens are an important part of a raw food diet to help provide protein for building and toning muscle. Gorillas, who forage mostly on leafy green vegetables, are one of the strongest body builders known in the animal kingdom.
Of course, chlorophyll is an essential component of green leaves. It is created through the absorption of sunlight, which is then converted into food that is alive and vibrant. These greens are cleansing to the body and help to detoxify toxins from the cells. All the green leafy vegetables have there own unique properties. Below we will discuss our favorites.
Dark Leafy Greens!
Arugula - or also known as "rocket lettuce." You will understand the term once you taste the spicy nut-like flavor of this crucerferous green, known for it's anti-cancer compounds. Great source of folic acid, Vit A, C, magnesium, calcium and manganese, potassium, riboflavin, copper, iron and zinc. Arugula is a great addition to a salad for extra special flavor.
Collard greens - amazing source of vitamins like: B6, C (one cup provides 70% RDA), carotenes, manganese, Vit. B1, B2 and E. Minerals: copper, calcium and copper. Collard greens are great for rolling raw burritos and their flavor is nicely balanced with savory foods like seed cheese or nut pates.
Kale - their are many varieties of kale out there. Our favorite by far is "dino kale", for it's super dark green color and softer texture. One delicious way to eat kale is marinated in raw kale salads, add some pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes and you've got a delicious, nutritious meal. Kale is especially beneficial because of it's high calcium/lower phosphorus ratio, it helps conditions such as osteoporosis that tend to have an excess of phosphorus which leaches calcium from the body.
Mustard greens - this is a great leafy to add to salad, but beware, it is on the spicy side. Mustard is especially beneficial for woman in cases of menopause, breast and heart health. It provides quality bone support with it's high levels of calcium, magnesium and folic acid.
Bok Choy - an excellent green we like to use in raw stir fry's because of it's crunchy stalk and tasty green leaf. The entire "brassica rapa" family including: tatsoi, mizuna, rapini, komatsuna, well known in European and Asian cuisine, are recently becoming popular around the world for their unique flavors and gourmet textures.
Spinach - known for it's high iron content, coming in at twice the amount of other greens, is also an incredibly alkaline food. It is one of the highest sources of lutein, which helps promote clear eye sight.
Lettuce - this green leafy vegetable is probably the most common in diets worldwide. There are many varieties to discover and choose from. Lettuce is a great mineralizer with high water content that is said to relax the body. It is most popular in salads, but can be used as a wrap or juiced.
Parsley - high in folic acid, which is important in cell regeneration and repair. Helps to cleanse the kidneys and assist in diabetes. It has a wonderful fresh taste which blends well in most any fresh juice.
Italian parsley, as opposed to the curlier variety, is more nutritious. This is the one we tend to use more often.
Cilantro - has been well studied for it's effects at being able to detox mercury from the body. It's unique flavor is favored by many in salsa, pesto, and I just plain love it in a nice salad.
How We Like To Eat Them
We love to eat raw DARK greens in our kale salad recipe. The leaves are chopped, marinated and deliciously nutritious!
Green leafy vegetables and wild edible greens are a great addition to green smoothies, raw salads, raw soups or we use them to wrap up nut pates, tacos or raw hummus.
They also go well with a variety of fermented foods such as:
A couple times a year my husband makes a few batches of his cheesy kale chip recipe. If you haven't tried these amazing crunchy "chips" made with kale in a dehydrator, you are missing out.
