The moral of the story is… I’m stupid.

I’ve always had this strange idea that lettuce was, like, pretend food. It facilitated all the other things that I wanted to eat and made it look healthy because it was green. It wasn’t actually one of those legit green foods like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, or cabbage. Hmm… Cabbage was actually a half legit food. If lettuce was the step sister to broccoli, cabbage was maybe the half sister. Dad didn’t really care about either though…

Yesterday while I was eating a genius concoction of ginger turkey lettuce wraps that we made on Sunday (recipe will come soon when I can actually remember what the heck went into it), I was feeling like the meal needed more vegetables. The lettuce didn’t occur to me and it didn’t really count in my mind. Maybe I just felt this way because it is so low calorie, like I just assumed that it was also low nutrient, but I’m wrong. Today I went over to the awesome Nutrition Data website ( I love love love this site!) and looked up Bib Lettuce and was totally surprised. It told me this:

This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Potassium and Manganese.

You can get more than 70% of the Vitamin K and 36% of the Vitamin A you need for a day from a cup of shredded Bibb lettuce. So it really isn’t the red headed step child I thought it was. So, while broccoli really is the over achieving straight “A” sister I’ve always thought it was, it turns out that lettuce also has it’s merits and won’t actually spend the rest of it’s live working at a McDonalds drive thru.

After this revelation I decided to check out Kale. Hot Damn! It turns out that Kale is like the socially awkward sister who totally invents shit and becomes a millionaire even before the rest of the family even realizes that she’s smart. Hanging out with her alone isn’t really what you want to do because it leaves a bad taste in your mouth but when in the right situation she totally shines. Like, you just brought her to a party where the punch is spiked and she drinks some not knowing and she’s suddenly the life of the party, singing karaoke while dancing on a table.

You suddenly discover that she can seriously rock it out and she can sing to boot! Nutrition Data understands this awkward sister, it says:

This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

In a cup of kale you can get over 684% of the Vitamin K, 206% of the Vitamin A, 134% of the Vitamin C, and 26% of the Manganese that you need for a day. This one’s a serious over achiever. Of course, who really just down’s a cup of kale? It really needs the right circumstances to be delicious, like being made into kale chips.
*This post was written in a casual manner to honor Casual Friday. Proper grammar will resume shortly.