It’s a common misconception that to be a true health nut you have to eat vegetables that are exotic, expensive, and unorthodox. But just because a vegetable is passé doesn’t mean it isn’t fully as nutritious as some of the more novel ones with hard to pronounce names. These unsung heroes of the produce section will give you just as many vitamins as bok choy or romanesco.
Onions
They may not good for the breath, but they're incredibly great for the rest of you. Now, frying them is not the healthiest route to go, but sprinkling some chopped and raw into your salsa or over your salad provides vitamin c, fiber, calcium, and iron. Not to mention the fact that research has found onions have joined the fight against prostate and lung cancer.
Carrots
Your mom wasn’t making it up when she told you carrots are good for the eyes. They’re filled with luteins, a carotenoid that helps prevent age-related eye diseases. Carrots are good for the rest of the body too: they're low-fat, low-calorie, high fiber, and contain over 400% of your daily recommended vitamin A intake.What more could you ask for from a cup of vegetables?
Collard Greens
Once you start pulling leafy greens into the mix, you’re practically swimming in nutrition. While there is a gram of fat in a cup of collard greens, there’s also three quarters of your daily vitamin C, 36% of calcium, and tons of vitamin A, manganese, magnesium, luteins, fiber, vitamin K, and all kinds of other stuff. Although it’s largely considered a Southern dish, this is one vegetable everyone could use a little more of.
Spinach
A cup of raw spinach has less than ten calories, no fat, and more nutrients than you can count. It’s got fiber, protein, zinc, copper, potassium, and vitamins A,B,C, E and K. Even canned, it has more good stuff than bad. Although being canned increases the caloric value, it still provides more than enough essential nutrients to make up for it. Plus, it helps protect against prostate cancer and digestive tract damage.
Kale
Although kale has developed a reputation of being one of those vegetables, there’s a good reason for that. Eaten straight out of the garden, it’s pretty bitter, but there’s a whole variety of ways to prepare it that make it tasty and keep it nutritious. A little olive oil and salt goes a long way, especially when you consider all the good stuff inside. Vitamin A, C, and K, B vitamins, protein, calcium, iron, folate, magnesium, and fiber all abound. Steamed kale is especially good for aiding digestion, and research shows it actually lowers cholesterol.
