Healthy Food Choices: Greens

Greens, or green leafy vegetables, are recommended for their rich nutrients and natural fiber to aid digestion. Try these tips for buying greens in this healthy shopping video.

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Can be low in calories & high in nutrients
Great sources of iron & folic acid
Choose the darkest green leaves
Iceberg lettuce provides little nutrients

About this Author

Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we're going to talk about greens. Aside from being low in calories and high in vitamins and nutrients and fiber, greens provide us with some of the minerals that we need as well. For example, greens are a great source of folic acid. In addition, spinach is a great source of iron. All the greens provide us with vitamin K. When choosing greens, you want to choose the darkest green leaf that you can. Iceberg lettuce virtually provides no nutrients at all. It's mostly water. But dark-green leafy vegetables provide us with vitamin K, folic acid, iron and antioxidants that our bodies need to fight off cardiovascular disease and cancer. So by eating a variety of the greens, you're going to be getting the vitamin K, iron, folic acid and antioxidants that your body is needing to fight off cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Healthy Food Choices: Greens Video

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