Lettuce and spinach are both favorite ingredients for salads and sandwiches. Whether you’re watching your weight or want to add nutrient-dense food to your diet, lettuce and spinach are excellent choices. Both are naturally low in calories and provide fiber, vitamins and minerals.
Basic Nutrition
Green leaf lettuce, which has more vitamins and minerals than iceberg lettuce, can be compared to spinach using a 100 g serving size of each. The leaf lettuce has 15 calories, 1.4 g protein and 0.2 g total fat, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database. The spinach has 23 calories, 3 g protein and 0.4 g fat. Lettuce has 1.3 g of dietary fiber compared to 2.2 g in spinach.
Vitamins
Leaf lettuce and spinach are both great sources of vitamin A: Lettuce has 7,405 IU, and spinach has 9,377 IU. Based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, 100 g of spinach provides more than 300 percent of the suggested daily intake, and leaf lettuce provides 246 percent. Lettuce and spinach both offer about 6 percent of the daily intake of thiamin, but spinach provides larger amounts of other vitamins. Leaf lettuce has 9 mg of vitamin C, 0.08 mg of riboflavin, 0.4 mg of niacin and 0.09 mg of vitamin B-6. Spinach has twice the amount of each of those vitamins, with 28 mg, or 31 percent, of the daily intake for vitamin C; 0.2 mg, or 15 percent, for riboflavin; 0.7 mg, or 4 percent, for niacin; and 0.2 mg, or 15 percent, for vitamin B-6. Spinach has four to five times more folate and vitamin K than leaf lettuce. Spinach has 194 mcg folate and 483 mcg vitamin K, compared to 38 mcg folate and 126 mcg vitamin K in green leaf lettuce.
Minerals
Spinach has three times more calcium, iron and potassium than leaf lettuce. Spinach has 99 mg of calcium, 3 mg of iron and 558 mg of potassium. Leaf lettuce has only 36 mg of calcium, 0.9 mg of iron and 194 mg of potassium. Lettuce has 13 mg of magnesium, compared to 79 mg in spinach, which gives spinach six times more magnesium. Spinach also has more salt, with 79 mg of sodium compared to the 28 mg in lettuce.
Phytochemicals
Dark green leafy vegetables are a good source of plant-based compounds called carotenoids. Spinach and green leaf lettuce contain two important carotenoids called lutein and zeaxanthin, which are the only antioxidants found in the eye. Lutein and zeaxanthin protect your eyes from blue light and have been associated with a lower risk of age-related cataracts and macular degeneration, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Leaf lettuce has 1,730 mcg, and spinach has 12,198 mcg, of lutein and zeaxanthin.
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