by Kathy H

Created on: September 15, 2008

The most popular and frequently used variety of lettuce is the iceberg. You see it used everywhere from restaurant salads and tacos to garnishes on burgers and lunch plates. The crisp, crunchy delicious lettuce leaves are eaten as wedges, torn into bite sized pieces, whole or shredded, but as in all things, just because something is popular, does not mean it is the best.

Even though this friend of dieters is low calorie, iceberg lettuce really has very little other nutritional value. Lettuce contains bulk which means it makes you feel less hungry after you have eaten a quantity of it, so you are apt to cut down on eating more of the higher calorie foods with your meal. This bulk is often confused with fiber.

All lettuce contains very little fiber, with the iceberg variety containing about 1 gram of dietary fiber per a one cup serving of shredded lettuce.
One of the drawbacks of eating too much of this variety of lettuce though is, along with all of that bulk, iceberg lettuce also contains a large amount of water. So, if you are going to eat plenty of salad, it would be a good idea to also stock up on toilet paper. :)

Iceberg lettuce is very low in sodium, about 7 grams per serving. That same one cup serving also contains 0 grams of saturated fat and 0 milligrams of cholesterol. There is no fat in this lettuce either, unless you load it with salad dressing.

Some of the other nutrients in iceberg lettuce are thiamine, vitamin B6, iron and potassium. There is also about 1 gram of protein in a one cup serving of this lettuce.

Iceberg lettuce also contains these percentages of these Recommended Daily Allowances, calcium 1%, vitamin A 7%, vitamin C 3% and iron 2%. Trace amounts of vitamin K, folate, and manganese are also present in this variety of lettuce. There is also 1 gram of sugar per serving.

Served by itself, iceberg lettuce is not very enticing. Perhaps the best way to increase the appeal and nutritional value of this popular green is to serve it in a salad of mixed greens and other vegetables. A leaf of this lettuce adds moisture and a sweet crunch to a sandwich. Chop or shred it and add it to a large pot of vegetable soup. Use it instead of slices of bread when making a low calorie sandwich wrap. There are many ways to incorporate this green vegetable into your daily meals.

So, it seems that iceberg lettuce does in fact have some nutritional value, but this nutritional value also varies with the color of the lettuce. Select the dark green outer leaves of iceberg lettuce to benefit from the most nutrition as with all lettuces, the darker the green, the higher the concentrate of nutrients.

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