all water, low nutrition salad foods: cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, celery. waste of resources?

[Liberal_in_LA]

There’s one food, though, that has almost nothing going for it. It occupies precious crop acreage, requires fossil fuels to be shipped, refrigerated, around the world, and adds nothing but crunch to the plate.

It’s salad, and here are three main reasons why we need to rethink it.

Salad vegetables are pitifully low in nutrition. The biggest thing wrong with salads is lettuce, and the biggest thing wrong with lettuce is that it’s a leafy-green waste of resources.

----



One of the people I heard from about nutrition is organic consultant Charles Benbrook. He and colleague Donald Davis developed a nutrient quality index — a way to rate foods based on how much of 27 nutrients they contain per 100 calories. Four of the five lowest-ranking foods (by serving size) are salad ingredients: cucumbers, radishes, lettuce and celery. (The fifth is eggplant.)

Those foods’ nutritional profile can be partly explained by one simple fact: They’re almost all water. Although water figures prominently in just about every vegetable (the sweet potato, one of the least watery, is 77 percent), those four salad vegetables top the list at 95 to 97 percent water. A head of iceberg lettuce has the same water content as a bottle of Evian (1-liter size: 96 percent water, 4 percent bottle) and is only marginally more nutritious.


--!!https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/why-salad-is-so-overrated/2015/08/21/ecc03d7a-4677-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_2_na

[olddots]

1. the Washington Post is good for paper training dogs

Yes food is commerce I get it and commerce isn't logical and life sucks then we die .sorry I'm having a bad day .

[Mnemosyne]

2. ...

[yeoman6987]

3. No kidding

This week we have been told not to eat a hamburger, milk, almonds and now salad. Thank god I don't make my decisions on what to eat by those with an agenda. Everyone should eat what they want or not. It is individual choice and not some reporter in the Corporate news.

[Shandris]

4. This is the priming for the 'efficiency' movement.

The Agenda 2030 Goals mention, repeatedly, 'sustainability'. Unless they're intending on murdering off a few billion people (and no I don't believe that, get a grip!), the only 'sustainable' way forward is 'efficiency'. Think Soylent.

Mmm. The yummy nutrient pastes of all the dystopian sci-fi roleplaying games. What a glorious future we have.

[yeoman6987]

5. If they take us there, I hope I am dead.

Yes some would love this country to eat that. We are in for a horrible future I predict.

[muriel_volestrangler]

57. Good, I'm glad to find out about Agenda 2030. It's what we need

and DU hasn't discussed it at all, yet. 'Agenda 21' had become a bit of a punchline about the crazy right-wingers who thought it was a plot to take over the United States.

This looks a good place to start:

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

Why are you vomiting? Did you catch something from an unwashed salad?

[Shandris]

75. Yes.

It's called 'Vague Definitionitis'. It comes when someone makes a suggestion that is completely unattainable without the removal of a few billion people, and then uses vague feel-good words to allude to how it's done.

You might be familiar with this technique, as it's typically a precursor to Bad Things. Perhaps when they release the list of actual, concrete policies I'll be a bit more trusting. Until then...no. I don't trust these people one. little. bit.

[Puzzledtraveller]

69. indeed, they really could find "real" stories

but that would require real journalism, and getting your hands dirty.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

74. And wrapping fish.

I will enjoy the water-hogging lettuce at supper.

[FLPanhandle]

6. I'll eat my salads, steaks, and whatever I want.

With human population growth, we will all be reduced to eating gruel or dying of starvation soon.

I plan on enjoying life in the meantime.

[Silent3]

14. The story isn't commanding you not to eat salads.

It's merely pointing out that much of what people call "salads", especially restaurant salads, aren't as healthy and nutritious as many people would like to imagine, and that if the end results aren't so healthy, it's a good idea to consider how much of our resources are poured into misleading food choices.

So far this thread consists of people defensively reacting as if they've just been imperiously commanded not to eat lettuce ever, ever again, or by conspiratorially thinking a mere criticism of low-nutrient dense foods must be part of a devious plot to prepare the masses for a Mad Max planet.

[cyberswede]

7. cucumbers

Cucumbers provide us with a variety of health-supportive phytonutrients. Included among these phytonutrients are flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin, quercetin, and kaempferol), lignans (pinoresinol, lariciresinol, and secoisolariciresinol), and triterpenes (cucurbitacins A, B, C, and D).

Cucumbers are an excellent source of vitamin K and molybdenum. They are also a very good source of the pantothenic acid. They are also a good source of copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin C, phosphorus, magnesium, biotin, and vitamin B1. They also contain the important nail health-promoting mineral silica.

http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42

About the source: http://www.whfoods.org
The George Mateljan Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests or
advertising, is a new force for change to help make a healthier you and a healthier world.

[Aerows]

23. And you can be

a terrible gardener and still get them to grow by the bucketful.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

28. They also provide us with pickles and relish.

Straight up, I don't care for em, but pickled, yum.

[hunter]

29. Yep. Science for hire has determined most of the human ESSENTIAL nutrients...

... and many of the most attractive "junk food" nutrients and flavors, but I think I'll take a pass on any future where our corporate overlords try to feed basic workers some version of monkey chow, synthetic "lemonades" and "beers," or Soylent products of any color.

Any human being who doesn't have a favorite fresh fruit or herb is living in an abusive environment.

I'll go further: Every human deserves a space where they can grow whatever makes them happy. Every human child, at the very minimum, should have the opportunity to grow radishes, even if they don't especially care for radishes. With that experience they might care for growing something.

I've got some lovely little tomatoes growing in my yard and it pleases me immensely to eat them warm and fresh off the vine. This years batch is five years and more of random "open source" genetic recombination.

If it grows here without much fuss I like it, if it grows here and tastes exceptionally good, I encourage it.

[H2O Man]

66. Cucumbers

are my favorite melon.

[cyberswede]

8. radishes

Radishes contain a high concentration of potassium, dietary fiber, folate and glucosinolate compounds. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, consuming plenty of produce rich in these nutrients can significantly lower the chance that you will develop several serious medical conditions.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrients-radishes-4369.html

[pansypoo53219]

50. i KNEW radishes had too much flavor to be goodie free.

[cyberswede]

9. celery

Celery is a rich source of phenolic phytonutrients that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These phytonutrients include: caffeic acid, caffeoylquinic acid, cinnamic acid, coumaric acid, ferulic acid, apigenin, luteolin, quercetin, kaempferol, lunularin, beta-sitosterol and furanocoumarins. Celery is an excellent source of vitamin K and molybdenum. It is a very good source of folate, potassium, dietary fiber, manganese, and pantothenic acid. Celery is also a good source of vitamin B2, copper, vitamin C, vitamin B6, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids).

Celery also contains approximately 35 milligrams of sodium per stalk, so salt-sensitive individuals can enjoy celery, but should keep track of this amount when monitoring daily sodium intake.

http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=14

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. ok. good to know

[retread]

18. My salads usually have carrots

From the same source:
Carrots are perhaps best known for their rich supply of the antioxidant nutrient that was actually named for them: beta-carotene. However, these delicious root vegetables are the source not only of beta-carotene, but also of a wide variety of antioxidants and other health-supporting nutrients. The areas of antioxidant benefits, cardiovascular benefits, and anti-cancer benefits are the best-researched areas of health research with respect to dietary intake of carrots.
Antioxidant Benefits

All varieties of carrots contain valuable amounts of antioxidant nutrients. Included here are traditional antioxidants like vitamin C, as well as phytonutrient antioxidants like beta-carotene. The list of carrot phytonutrient antioxidants is by no means limited to beta-carotene, however. This list includes:

Carotenoids
alpha-carotene
beta-carotene
lutein
Hydroxycinnamic acids
caffeic acid
coumaric acid
ferulic acid
Anthocyanindins
cyanidins
malvidins

[retread]

20. and tomatoes

Tomatoes are widely known for their outstanding antioxidant content, including, of course, their oftentimes-rich concentration of lycopene. Researchers have recently found an important connection between lycopene, its antioxidant properties, and bone health. A study was designed in which tomato and other dietary sources of lycopene were removed from the diets of postmenopausal women for a period of 4 weeks, to see what effect lycopene restriction would have on bone health. At the end of 4 weeks, women in the study started to show increased signs of oxidative stress in their bones and unwanted changes in their bone tissue. The study investigators concluded that removal of lycopene-containing foods (including tomatoes) from the diet was likely to put women at increased risk of osteoporosis. They also argued for the importance of tomatoes and other lycopene-containing foods in the diet. We don't always think about antioxidant protection as being important for bone health, but it is, and tomato lycopene (and other tomato antioxidants) may have a special role to play in this area.

[Aerows]

24. Celery can easily be grown indoors

from the bottom of a head of it. It will regularly sprout and you can just keep it by a window and cut what you need.

[KarenS]

32. Good to know,,,,

Thank you. I will try this.

[Eleanors38]

70. What? Take celery out of creole cooking? Not here.

[hunter]

10. Compared to what? Bottled water? Soft Drinks?

Don't let Nestle or Coca-Cola hear you talking like this, Tamar Haspel, you might find yourself unwelcome at the Washington Post... Cans and plastic bottles full of worse than nothing products are big business in the U.S.A..

[gollygee]

13. Yeah, really!

You want to fight wasteful "food products" then start with soft drinks.

[rusty fender]

19. And Twinkies!

[Rex]

11. Considering you can take a multi-vitamin daily.

Yeah.

[Codeine]

15. Nobody eats iceberg lettuce anymore. nt

[Marrah_G]

17. My grandmother once told me that Iceberg lettuce was pig food

Literally, the stuff that was only good to feed pigs was the common attitude when she was younger. They ate other types of more nutritious greens.

personally I like arugula and baby spinich.

[Butterbean]

27. I do. How else am I supposed to get the ranch dressing into my mouth?

LOL. Thruthfully, though I really do like some iceberg mixed in with my other greens for a salad, but I prefer balsamic vinaigrette.

[hunter]

41. One of my grandpas was like that, in his lunchbox...

...his quartered head of lettuce was a carrier for his fantastic "macro-biotic" mayonnaise made by my grandma from free-range eggs, organic local lemons and limes, and home-brew vinegars and buttermilks.

I inherited my love of buttermilk from my grandpa I think.

I used to brew buttermilk on top of the water heater, from government surplus powdered milk. My roomies thought I was a freak, but probably not for that reason. I was a freak in many other ways.

Unfortunately my mom's dad was also a big fan of the home grown Prohibition Style Whiskey, and he smoked and chewed tobacco and inhaled far too many toxic chemicals as a World War II and Cold War shipyard welder.



His life did not end well.

[Butterbean]

44. I like ranch, but only certain types, and I have to have a craving.

I loathe, detest, and am repelled by mayonnaise. Just typing the word makes me gag a little. Haha.

[Retrograde]

30. You haven't met my relatives

I keep trying to introduce them to lettuce with taste - i.e., anything other than iceberg - but to no avail.

[former9thward]

31. They sure sell alot of it in stores.

Funny since "nobody" is eating it...

[TwilightGardener]

33. I don't use it for salads, but it's still good for shredding for tacos, for sandwiches, etc.

Holds its crunch.

[Freddie]

37. What iceberg lettuce is perfect for

Sandwiches and tacos, for the crunch and mild sweetness. Bit of a pet peeve when a restaurant puts that fancy lettuce or greens on a sandwich when iceberg is best (except watercress on egg salad, yum). I'm in Philly "hoagie country" and the only proper lettuce for a hoagie is iceberg, preferably shredded.

[SamKnause]

35. This nobody does.

It is the only lettuce that I like.

It makes sandwiches delightful.

I make large salads using iceberg lettuce.

I don't like romaine, leaf lettuce, spinach, kale etc.

[SoapBox]

36. I occasionally do...

I love a cold, crisp quarter with tomato wedges and thousand...it's a total throw back and makes me happy.

The norm is Romaine and/or fresh spinach.

Lettuce, radishes, celery...much better than a Big Mac and diet soda.

[Liberal_in_LA]

47. iceberg has a cool crisp mouth feel

[shanti]

54. romaine is my favorite

but i like butter lettuce too. iceberg lettuce is for tacos and sandwiches.

[KamaAina]

62. Not true. "The wedge" is making a comeback.

It's a retro foodie kind of thing.

[Atman]

72. We grow our own lettuce, but never iceberg. Ever. Never.

It is a waste. We grow all sorts of fancy lettuce which I can't name because by "we" I mean "my wife." Anyway, we always have wonderful salads. But dayam...there is something to be said for a good wedge salad with blue cheese and bacon and fresh tomato. Sure, a restaurant will charge you $8-12 for a quarter of a $1.50 hunk of crisply water in leaf form, but couple it with another obscenely over-priced restaurant staple, French Onion Soup, and you've got yourself a delightful guilty pleasure.

Or you could make both of them at home for less than $5.

[Orrex]

64. The iceberg lettuce that you can see eaten is only 10% of the total

[Codeine]

73. For the win. nt

[bhikkhu]

77. A big salad, mostly iceberg lettuce, is my dinner staple

I mix in some carrots and cabbage, then a bit of cheese, crotuons if I have them, and sometimes sliced ham or chicken. And Berensteins Italian dressing. I'm not too concerned if its not a nutritional powerhouse - its still good food, especially compared to the common alternatives.

[daredtowork]

16. Good for dieting, lol. nt

[LostOne4Ever]

21. Lettuce

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=61

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/lettuce.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/420531-does-iceburg-lettuce-have-any-nutritional-value/

[Solly Mack]

22. Back up off the celery.

Just move away from it.

Thank you.

[TheProgressive]

25. Red and green leaf lettuce is very good for you...

Romaine is good for you too...

Head lettuce is worthless.

[Aerows]

26. Was this article written by a 12-year-old boy?

Lettuce contains many trace minerals that are beneficial for the human body, as do cucumbers and radishes.

I'm not even going to address the relevance of celery because I dare you to cook staples like red beans and rice, stuffing, and chicken noodle soup with out it.

[SoapBox]

38. Agree.

It's all about a balanced diet

Celery...it's absolutely essential for all the foods you mentioned...not to forget celery stuffed with peanut or other nut butters. Yum!

[KamaAina]

67. Pretty much any Cajun food contains celery

it's part of the "holy trinity" along with onions and bell peppers.

[Taitertots]

34. Solving the wrong problem

A stable population wouldn't need to be concerned about sacrificing foods over resource shortages.

[KittyWampus]

39. There are not just 27 nutrients. There are phytonutrients. So Charles Benbrook

is either not well informed or trying to sell something.

One note about phytonutrients though, they often cause a bitter taste which modern eaters don't like and which industrial food producers go out of their way to breed out of plants or remove from products or mask.

We have become over-sensitive to bitterness. Bitterness can be a sign of bad food but our tolerance for it has lowered.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/72/6/1424.full

Lettuce has phytonutrients and negative calories.

[Dont call me Shirley]

40. And so gmo corn and cane sugar are super foods, wapo, right?....

[hunter]

42. High Fructose Corn Syrup is a magic food in that world, don't you know???

[Dont call me Shirley]

43. Magically delicious...

[Kingofalldems]

45. As one of the comments after the article states,

lettuce is filling with hardly any calories---good for dieters.

[karadax]

46. Vertical farming solves the acerage problem.

I'd love to see more companies make the switch. There won't be as many resources used in their cultivation and transport because it's all concentrated in one location. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency!

[snooper2]

60. yes, because sunlight likes to go around corners

[Gloria]

48. If you go to the USDA Nutrition Database (and there's an app, too)

you will be amazed at the nutrients in these foods and fiber!

Sweet potatoes are truly amazing for helping control blood sugar, too. I eat them in the morning and don't get hungry in two minutes!

We're all supposed to be eating a good mix of vegetables and these are part of a good, varied diet...

Maybe if we didn't screw around with the environment so much we'd be able to eat well without "criminalizing" leafy veggies!

I eat dandelion nearly every day, to mention other greens. I have a kidney issue, so I watch my protein, so leafy veggies really are wonderful for me!

[1monster]

49. I tend to disregard the "experts" in nutrition on what foods to eat or not...

Everything they told us twenty years ago has been found to be wrong and they are telling us the exact opposite today.

Saturated fats will kill you! they claimed. Use only polyunsaturated fats. Coconut oil is poison! NO BUTTER EVER! Use margarine. Low carbs, high carb diet, low fat diet, high fat diet, not eggs! Gluten free diets only! Very low or no salt diets... The list goes on and on.

Turns out margarine is a killer; butter in measured amounts is good for us. Whole milk is better than skim milk. Eggs are good for us. Coconut oil is beneficial. Polyunsaturated fats not good for us.

If I want a freakin cucumber, radish, celery, lettuce, or sweet potato, I'm gonna eat that cucumber, radish, celery (I love celery!) lettuce, or sweet potato. Each of those foods have their benefits, despite the "experts" declaration that they are "low nutrition."

I'm sick of the food police.

[Arugula Latte]

51. I'll give you my greens and salad veggies when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

[RufusTFirefly]

52. I'll considering skipping salad when Nestle stops buying our water at 2 cents/gallon

For roughly what that one family pays to cook, drink, and bathe for less than six months, Nestle extracts 27 million gallons of crystal clear water from the Arrowhead Spring, denying precious ground water replenishment and natural irrigation to the forest around it and the valley below.

At that rate, Nestle is paying roughly two cents per gallon for water they routinely sell for as much as $2 per bottle. The profits from the spring, which is on public land in a national forest, goes directly to Nestle, with not a dime going to investigate the risks to that fragile ecosystem or any kind of public reimbursement for the theft of our natural resource.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/08/21/nestle-pays-a-whopping-524-for-27-million-gallons-of-californias-most-precious-resource/

[Texasgal]

53. No coffee, no nuts, no sugar

no fat, no soy, no dairy. Can I atleast keep my wine?

I might as well starve to death.

[shanti]

55. but, but

what about "roughage"? we all need that!

[cstanleytech]

56. It seems to me then that these crops are crops that could benefit from some major GMO

then say and make it so that farmers could potentially use salt water to grow them instead of fresh water.

[ladyVet]

58. That's just ridiculous.

Salads are good for you, provided you don't use those nasty low-fat dressings on them. I make mine with lettuce/greens mix, tomatoes, cucumbers and bacon bits (real bacon), mozzarella cheese and homemade Ranch dressing. Chopped hard-boiled eggs are another ingredient. So good I can't even tell you. People at work used to stop by and admire my salads, and ask me how I made them. I ate a big salad for lunch every day, and was full until dinner time.

Big Agribusiness wants us to eat GMO, over-processed junk filled with artificial colors, preservatives and shit like HFCS and MSG. Then their buddies in Big Pharma can get richer selling us vitamins, diabetes drugs, heart drugs and cancer treatments.

Should salad stuff be part of big farms and shipped all over the world? No. All of that stuff is easily grown in smaller regional farming communities, or even in your own yard (or on a balcony, for that matter).

I'm a believer in lower carb/higher natural fat eating. No "white foods", like flour, sugar, rice, potatoes. Fats such as butter and the natural fat from meats and other foods (like avocados). No artificial ingredients, like preservatives, colorings or flavor enhancers (MSG).

[RobinA]

59. I Knew This Day Would Come

All food is now bad for you, or at least worthless. Pass the Steak au Poivre.

[HFRN]

76. and eating salad is just proof of how selfish you are

good lord, we're at Chinese cultural revolution level of criticism/self criticism

[closeupready]

61. I love foie gras, caviar, steak AND salad. Not giving ANY of them up.

[KamaAina]

63. And so much of the Salinas Valley is devoted to growing lettuce

Some of the best farmland in California (hence, anywhere ), and less impacted by the drought than the larger San Joaquin Valley.

On the flip side of the drought coin, one year there was flooding in the Salinas Valley; so much of our lettuce supply comes from there that signs went up at Subway warning that there might not be enough lettuce to put on our sandwiches!

[Crunchy Frog]

65. Yes, but

It works well as a vessel for Ranch dressing and bacon bits.

[Capt. Obvious]

68. Lettuce is just ruffage

I use spinach for the leafy part of salads when available.

[Eleanors38]

71. Increasingly, I as well.

[Travis_0004]

78. Perhaps if we want to save water we should stop cutting down trees to print the washington post.

[GoCubsGo]

79. So, the nutritional label on my tub of spring greens is all a lie?

They are "lettuce," too, and they're full of vitamins and minerals. I'll agree with the author regarding iceberg lettuce, however. But, he's a bit selective with the restaurant salads. Yeah, he's correct when it comes to a lot of chain restaurants having unhealthy salads. But, a lot of independent places have healthy salads on the menu, that are predominately greens and veggies.