12 Health Benefits of Leafy Greens in Your Diet

The undisputed superstars of the food industry are leafy greens like kale, spinach and chard. Leafy green vegetables have incredible health benefits. They are low in calories and high in vitamins, fibre, and phytonutrients.

Leafy greens can make you feel younger, whether in whole foods, smoothies, or powdered form. They also can support healthy ageing. Let’s talk about dark leafy vegetables, their benefits, and how you can include them in your daily diet.

• Dark Leafy Greens

We all know organic, non-GMO vegetables and fruits are good for us. However, some are better than others. Many crowd favourites like spinach, kale, and collard greens have high vitamins, minerals, and fibre levels. You can also incorporate dark leafy greens into your diet in delicious and fun ways.

Do you still need to be convinced? Read on for all the incredible benefits of leafy greens.

• Green Veggies Support Optimal Brain Function

As you age, do you want to improve your memory and reasoning? Eat your leafy green vegetables! Recent research published in The National Library of Medicine showed that people who ate more leafy greens per day experienced slower cognitive decline than those who ate less. Even after considering other factors such as lifestyle, education, health, and general health, this was still true.

Folate (B9) is a high-quality vitamin found in organic vegetables. The brain has been shown to produce more neurotransmitters (chemicals that transfer messages from the brain into the rest of the body). B vitamins are high in folate (B9). Folate can be found in leafy green veggies like spinach, lettuce, bananas, and lemons, melons, and bananas.

• Leafy Greens Fight Belly Bloat

Bloating may be caused by diet, hormones, stomach infections or other digestive problems. Bloating can be caused by a diet high in sodium, often due to overreliance on processed food. There is a secret ingredient in leafy vegetables that can help. To maintain a healthy fluid balance, potassium, a mineral and electrolyte, must be consumed in large quantities in leafy greens. You need to ensure that you get enough potassium to keep your body balanced. The USDA’s 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines recommend consuming approximately 4,700 mg/day.

One cup of cooked spinach provides 840 mg potassium, which will help you meet your daily needs.

• Green Leafy Vegetables Give Your Skin a Radiant Shine

Beta-carotene is a plant pigment associated with carrots, yellow-orange vegetables, and other yellow-orange vegetables. It can also be found in leafy greens. Consider the colour of leaves changing in fall. You can see the yellow, red, and orange pigments that leaves have underneath as they lose their chlorophyll (the colour that makes them green). These vibrant colours are responsible for the incredible health benefits of leafy greens.

Beta-carotene gives your skin a youthful glow. It also works as a natural sunblock, protecting your skin against harmful UV rays.

• Leafy Greens Relieve Stress

A big green smoothie every morning is a great way to reduce stress Folate is an important component of mood-regulating neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Dark leafy greens are a great source of folate.

Additionally, leafy greens contain magnesium which can support optimal cardiovascular health.

• Leafy Green Vegetables Support Bone Health

You might believe that milk is the only way for strong bones because of all those “Got Milk?” advertisements. Research has shown that milk intake does not affect fracture risk. It may increase the likelihood of women getting hip fractures. This is yet another reason to stop using dairy. Dark leafy greens are a great source of calcium to support optimal bones health. You can also get plenty of vitamin K from green vegetables like broccoli and kale.

• Leafy Greens Support Healthy Aging

Do you want to age well? Who isn’t? The power of leafy greens can delay the shortening telomeres (the protective caps that protect our DNA from ageing), which are the protective caps that slow down the telomeres’ shortening. Broccoli sprouts are a great example of a cell that can preserve its telomere length. The cell will die if its telomeres have been destroyed.

Furthermore, dark leafy greens have been shown to protect skin from the sun’s damaging UV rays. Beta-carotene, found in leafy greens, converts into vitamin A in our bodies. This supports the reduction and smoothening of wrinkles and fine lines and reduces dullness, and stimulates cell turnover for clear skin. Let’s sum it up. Another benefit of leafy greens is healthier, more youthful-looking skin.

• The Inflammatory Response to Green Leafy Vegetables is Improved

Although this might seem obvious, I want to emphasize how vital it is to support healthy inflammatory responses to prevent a host of chronic diseases. Vitamin D is found in leafy greens like spinach, kale and collards. This vitamin promotes regulatory cells responsible for distinguishing between “self” cells and outside invaders. Active vitamin D promotes them. It essentially makes your immune system more intelligent, teaching it not to attack itself and preventing an autoimmune disorder.

• Green vegetables help balance sugars.

A serving of green leafy vegetables with each meal can help maintain healthy blood glucose levels. Even a small amount of green leafy vegetables can make a huge difference in your daily diet.

Not to mention that if your thyroid condition is severe, drastic swings in blood sugar can encourage your body to convert more T4 into Reverse T3, an inactive form of thyroid hormone.

• Leafy Greens Support Optimal Gut Health

Are you suffering from leaky gut, food sensitivities or autoimmunity? You might find it helpful to eat more dark leafy vegetables. T-bet, a newly discovered gene that is activated by cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts, instructs your intestinal lining precursor cells to create innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) for you. ILCs found in leafy vegetables protect your body from gut infections and inflammation, manage food allergies and intolerances and support healthy immune responses. They protect your body against bad bacteria, and the fibre in dark leafy leaves feeds your healthy bacteria. This makes leafy greens an excellent choice for anyone suffering from gastrointestinal distress.

• The Toxins are out of control with leafy green vegetables.

Tending to the toxins is an important component of The Myers Way(r). It’s also one of the many benefits of leafy vegetables. Because of the chlorophyll, the pigment that makes green vegetables green, dark leafy greens are expert detoxifiers. The chlorophyll-rich foods like spirulina and parsley bind to heavy metals and other toxins in your body and transport them out. Chlorophyll helps detoxify your liver and support immune function to prevent toxins from building up in your body.

• Healthy Greens Boost Digestive Enzymes

You are not what you eat. What you digest and absorb is what matters. It would be best to break down digestive enzymes and absorb nutrients from food. If you don’t have enough, you will experience bloating, constipation and other gastrointestinal problems such as constipation, diarrhoea, acid reflux, and nutrient deficiency. Leaky gut is a major cause of digestive enzyme deficiency. Other factors include inflammation due to food sensitivities, chronic stress and genetics. To support your body’s natural ability to produce digestive enzymes, dark leafy greens is one of the best foods.

• Leafy Greens Help Your Immune System

Leafy greens have the potential to boost your immune system, which is one of their most promising benefits. Moringa Leaf, a dark leafy green, can help to support healthy responses to oxidative stress. If left untreated, it can lead to autoimmunity.

Research specifically mentions broccoli, arugula and kale, among the vegetables that support internal processes, including the immune system, inflammation modulation, and immunity.

Raw Vegetables or Cooked Vegetables? Which one is better?

This is what I have seen time and again in my clinic. A diet rich in vegetables is associated with a lower risk of chronic diseases when combined with pasture-raised, grass-fed meats and healthy oils.

You may be wondering which one is better: cooked or raw? You may be surprised at the answer! The answer may surprise you! The easiest way to get your veggies is with Organic green powder.

How to get more leafy greens

It’s best to get these amazing benefits from whole foods. However, not all foods are available in the right season or the optimal soil. Additionally, it can be hard to obtain the health benefits of leafy vegetables from diet alone. An organic greens powder is great for when it’s too hectic to prepare a large salad or smoothie or when you want to be healthy on the move or while travelling.

One scoop of Organic Greens is a nutritious powerhouse. It contains 14 USDA-certified organic plants foods, including green superstars like spinach, kale and moringa. This is the perfect product for:

• Are you looking to save time and not juicing your produce every morning?
• You need a delicious, affordable alternative to expensive juice bars
• When you travel often, you may need a doctor-designed source for organic nutrition when eating out.
• You want to reduce stress and have balanced hormones.