When it comes to going on a diet, many people often choose to forgo many high-carb foods such as bread, wraps, and pasta and instead turn to a greener solution to fill that hunger void.
Many vegetables, such as tomatoes, celery, and onions, are often included in lists of vegetables that are the lowest in carbs and should be included in your diet.
However, with so many sources of information going around these days, it can often be hard to narrow down if a food item is truly low or free of carbs.
For instance, whilst a lot of ice cream alternatives may advertise themselves as being ‘low in carbs’, the fact that some foods like ice cream have insane amounts of carbs in them anyway, that small reduction in their carb counts can still be sold as ‘technically’ low in carbs, while still being unhealthy.
Now, this is unlikely to apply exactly to many, if any, vegetables. Nothing outside a truly insane amount of vegetables could probably equate to even a single serving of ice cream in terms of carbs.
But with there being several high-carb vegetables out there, such as potatoes and squashes, it can make anyone think twice before including a vegetable ingredient in their diet, often leading to wildly different results.
So, does the same apply to lettuce? Is it surprisingly high in carbs too, like potatoes, or is it more like carrots in being a low-carb food?
Well, that’s what we’re here to find out!
In this guide, we are going to show you some nutritional facts about lettuce, how and why it is low in carbs, and the health benefits it can have for you when eaten in appropriate amounts.
Makeup Of Lettuce
Firstly, we should probably discuss some of the nutritional information around lettuce, before discussing how carb-heavy they are.
Because, despite being cultivated, farmed, and eaten for centuries at this point, many people seem to think that lettuce holds no nutritional value to eat.
Which is not just unfair on this humble little vegetable, but just plain wrong!
For one thing, lettuce is a great source of iron and folate, along with several minerals that are small, but vital components to your bodily functions, as well as helping promote better sleep in people.
Of course, they are a great source of vitamins too and contain particularly high quantities of vitamin K and A, the former of which is vital for binding calcium in the body, and the latter is great for maintaining great eyesight.
Even iceberg lettuce, often considered the least nutritiously beneficial lettuce variety, has very high quantities of vitamin A inside it.
And, of course, lettuce is probably most well known for its very high water content, being almost 97% by some estimates.
This means that they are a great source of hydration, especially for solid food.
It was probably this quality that made them popular for ancient Egyptians to cultivate them thousands of years ago in the first place!
Carbs In Lettuce
So, we have a sense of how nutritional this vegetable is.
But, how is lettuce in terms of its overall amount of carbs and calories? Are they zero for either?
Well, unfortunately, no. Very few, if any, foods have zero calories in them, and the same goes for many vegetables, including lettuce.
However, the overall amount of carbs and calories found in lettuce is still extremely low.
Per 100 grams of butterhead lettuce, the total number of calories found in lettuce, and only around 2.2 grams of carbs can be found in this vegetable.
This means that the overall amount of carbs in 100 grams amounts to a very small percentage of your recommended amount, both caloric and carbs-wise.
And keep in that this is for arguably a large amount of lettuce to eat in a single sitting, too.
A cup of lettuce, arguably a more reasonable amount to use in a single meal, only amounts to about a single gram of carbs!
Health Benefits Of Lettuce
So, we’ve mentioned how lettuce is low in carbs and calories, as well as a few other health benefits it has.
Are there any other positive health effects of adding more lettuce to your diet?
The following are just some more great health benefits of eating this vegetable.
A Great Antioxidant
Being high in free radicals, lettuce leaves are an easy way to help boost your immune system against mild illnesses such as colds and tonsillitis
Lots of Fiber
Fiber is a vital nutrient for aiding gut digestion, and there is plenty of fiber to be found in lettuce!
High In Calcium
Along with high amounts of vitamin K, there is also a decent amount of calcium to be found in lettuce leaves, which aids in strengthening and maintaining your skeleton’s bones.
This means that eating plenty of lettuce is a great ingredient for plenty of young children.
If you can convince them to eat it in the first place!
Is Lettuce Keto Friendly?
For many people going on a keto diet, where they are trying to cut out carbs and supplement that deficit with a high protein and fat diet, finding low-carb food is essential.
And with its next to no carb amount, lettuce is a prime ingredient to use in a keto-geared meal.
Plus, with its high water content, lettuce helps combat some of the side effects that a keto diet can have, such as dehydration and bad breath.
Final Thoughts
So, to bring us to a close, we can confidently say that, while some carbs can be found in lettuce, they are still very low in carbohydrates, and are fine to include in your diets that want to cut down on them.
One of the most common things I talk to my clients about is calories, but so few of them actually know anything about them.
Calories is not a dirty word. If you remove emotion from it, it is simply a unit of energy.
We need calories to live and thrive, and knowing how many to consume is important to ensure that you’re living a healthy lifestyle.
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