Dark-green vegetables

Dark-Green Vegetables include all fresh, frozen, and canned dark-green leafy vegetables and broccoli, cooked or raw such as amaranth leaves, basil, beet greens, bitter melon leaves, bok choy, broccoli, chamnamul, chrysanthemum leaves, chard, cilantro, collards, cress, dandelion greens, kale, lambsquarters, mustard greens, poke greens, romaine lettuce, spinach, nettles, taro leaves, turnip greens, and watercress.

Nutrition

Dark green leafy vegetables are great sources of nutrition.

Salad greens

Salad greens, kale and spinach are rich in vitamins A, C, E and K, and broccoli, bok choy and mustard are also rich in many of the B-vitamins. These vegetables also contain an abundance of carotenoids-antioxidants that protect cells and play roles in blocking the early stages of cancer.

Rich in fiber and minerals

They also contain high levels of fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium. Furthermore, greens have very little carbohydrates, sodium and cholesterol.

B vitamins

The dark greens supply a significant amount of folate, a B vitamin that promotes heart health and helps prevent certain birth defects.

Vitamin K

The vitamin K contents of dark green leafy vegetables provide a number of health benefits including: protecting bones from osteoporosis and helping to prevent against inflammatory diseases.

Antioxidants

Because of their high content of antioxidants, green leafy vegetables may be one of the best cancer-preventing foods. Studies have shown that eating 2 to 3 servings of green leafy vegetables per week may lower the risk of stomach, breast and skin cancer. These same antioxidants have also been proven to decrease the risk of heart disease. thumb|right

How to use dark-green vegetables

Eating dark green leafy vegetables is vital to a healthy, balanced diet. There are many ways to enjoy a meal with leafy greens:

• Make a salad: Keep salads interesting by varying their colors, textures and varieties. Perk them up with small tender leafy greens such as romaine lettuce, spinach and arugula mixed with different kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots.

• Wrap it up: Make a wrap with tuna, chicken or turkey and add romaine lettuce, spinach, arugula, and other veggies for some extra flavor.

• Add to soup: Add greens with larger, tougher leaves such as collard greens, kale or mustard greens into your favorite soup.

• Stir-fry: Add chopped spinach, bok choy or broccoli to chicken or tofu stir-fried with olive or canola oil with some garlic, onion or ginger.

• Steamed: Steaming collard greens, mustard greens, kale or spinach until they are slightly soft.

• In an omelet: Add steamed broccoli and/or spinach to an egg-white omelet for a vitamin and iron rich meal.

Gallery

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  Gotukola (Centella asiatica)

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  Swiss chard

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  Water spinach

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  Sabzi Khordan, an Iranian salad-like dish, here of mixed greens and radishes

See also

• Healthy diet
• List of leaf vegetables

Nutritional information on Dark-green vegetables

NB:Carbohydrate, by difference(total carbs-fiber) is also called net carbs