What is red leaf lettuce? The red leaf lettuce, which has the scientific name Lactuca sativa var. crispa, is one of many leaves that fall under the Asteraceae family. It offers a soggy flavor, water composition, and sleek, rich touch. These give your taste buds a mouth-watering experience in each nibble.
What makes it stand apart from the green leaf, romaine lettuce, and other leaf assortments is its warm red color and open “head” of loose leaves. The obvious shading distinction enables the red leaf lettuce to be liberated from blemishes and shrinking on the edges.
But, are there the health benefits of red leaf lettuce? We are about to find out soon enough.
List of Health Benefits of Red Leaf Lettuce
- Rich Source of Vitamin A
Countless substances have a place under the umbrella of vitamin A. However, they are totally ordered as retinoids or carotenoids, as per the Linus Pauling Institute. Retinoids are liable for the medical advantages related to vitamin A, like typical vision, solid skin, and immune support.
Red leaf lettuce is a rich source of carotenoids, fundamentally beta-carotene. Your body changes over beta-carotene into retinol, so it adds to your daily vitamin A intake.
You will likewise get a more modest measure of the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, which function as antioxidants in your eyes. You might also be interested in the benefits of mulethi for eyesight.
It is believed that one cup of red leaf lettuce contains 2,098 international units of vitamin or around 70% of the suggested dietary stipend of 3,000 international units.
- Contains Flavonoids
Scientists found that dicaffeoyl tartaric acid was the ruling phenolic compound in lettuce in general and that the red leaf cultivar contained twofold more dicaffeoyl tartaric acid than the tested green cultivars.
Furthermore, different examinations have shown red-pigmented assortments to contain huge degrees of flavonoids, for example, anthocyanins.
These phenolic compounds have gotten a great deal of consideration from the medical community because of their wide-ranging health-maintaining movement, on account of their antioxidant impacts and other health-boosting characteristics.
- Useful for Bones and Blood
Your body utilizes vitamin K to frame proteins that are most popular for making blood clumps. In any case, these vitamin K-dependent proteins fill other fundamental jobs.
They assist with keeping up with bone thickness by managing the development of calcium in your bones. Read also, the benefits of turmeric for bones.
Different proteins produced using vitamin K repress the development of minerals in your veins, which might assist with forestalling the solidifying of the arteries, as indicated by a review published in the January 2013 issue of Trends in Molecular Science. You will get 40 micrograms of vitamin K from eating one cup of crushed red leaf lettuce. This sum gives 44% of women’s and 33 percent of men’s suggested daily consumption.
- Controls Cholesterol Levels
Not only does red leaf lettuce contain zero fat and zero cholesterol, but it might also help cut down LDL cholesterol levels. A group of French researchers found that rats that were fed an eating regimen containing 20% red leaf lettuce for three weeks saw an improvement in their HDL cholesterol levels (good) comparable to their LDL cholesterol levels (bad).
The researchers likewise recorded a stamped decline in the rats’ liver cholesterol levels (-41%) as well as a huge drop in the retention of dietary cholesterol (-37%). These convincing outcomes were published in the August 2004 release of the journal Clinical Nutrition.
- High in Potassium
Potassium helps with managing pulse and keeping up with normal nerve driving forces all through the brain. It forestalls seizures as well as soothes torment from osteoarthritis of the knee joint.
- Very Hydrating
Keeping up with sufficient hydration is significant for your general wellbeing. Red leaf lettuce is 96% water, making it amazingly revitalizing. It has a particularly high water content, which can keep you hydrated and feeling full. Speaking of hydration, here are the symptoms of dehydration.
- Battles Cancer
Red leaf lettuce comprises a lot of vitamin K which has been shown to be powerful in diminishing the danger of stomach, prostate, colon, nasal, and oral cancers.
The examination has found that high portions of vitamin K assisted patients with liver cancer balance out and even work on their liver capacity.
Another examination study showed that an increase in dietary admission of vitamin K is identified with a decreased chance of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or all-cause mortality in a Mediterranean populace at high cardiovascular illness risk.
So, those are the health benefits of red leaf lettuce. While you are at it, make sure to also check out the health benefits of Romaine lettuce and the health benefits of wild lettuce.