by Lorelei Cohen

Created on: August 21, 2008

A century ago Iceberg lettuce was the leading lettuce for consumption by consumers. Today it's production and sales are dropping substantially as Iceberg lettuce is being rapidly replaced by healthier, more flavorful forms of lettuce and other leafy vegetables. Farmers are increasing their production of Spinach, Chard, Romaine lettuce as well as other red leaf and darker green lettuces in preparation of their increased sales.

So why is Iceberg lettuce receiving such a bad rap in todays health consious society? Iceberg lettuce is a green leafy vegetable. Per average serving it offers up one gram of protein, four percent of our daily requirement of vitamin A, two percent of our calcium requirement, six percent of our vitamin C requirment and two percent of our Iron requirement. It has zero fat, zero cholesterol and only 15 calories per serving. So why the big switch?

In today's world we are becoming much more health consious. This is indeed a fact despite the fact that obesity rates have gotten out of control and still appear to be on the rise. We as a society enjoy our food and we want to continue enjoying it. We like the convenience of fast foods and we love the pleasure that eating those all so not too good for us foods bring us. So why are we giving up Iceberg lettuce which it would appear is actually still quite a healthy food option?

The other options offer us an easy opportunity to acquire more nutrition, more flavor from our vegetables without consuming any more of them than we already do. Knowing that we are choosing these highly nutritious salads also affords us the opportunity to feel a little less guilty when we do consume our other not so healthy foods.

A century ago we didn't have a choice in which lettuces or other nutritious leafy vegetables were available for us to place on our dinner table. Unless we grew our own, or lived close to a farm, other choices were just not available to consumers. Produce was shipped from California by train. Packed in ice to keep it fresh till it's arrival Iceberg lettuce was the only lettuce hardy enough to remain in all its crisp green glory till it reached it's final destination. It was the only lettuce able to find its way from California, onto grocery store shelves, and from there to the family dining table. That is actually how Iceberg lettuce got its name. It is named after the ice that it was packed in.

Iceberg lettuce does also have it's own special attributes when it comes to lettuces. It has a crisp snap to

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