I recently bought a package of celery. To my amazement, my partner immediately wanted a stalk, although I sware he said he hated it. Immediately he put salt on it. He added that he never eats it because it has 'no nutritional value'. I found curious, because I thought it was a great source of minerals. One of which was a high amount of natural sodium.

Any case we are enjoying the celery, which is disappearing very quickly. I don't know why he would want to add even more salt. I said I wanted more moisture for my eyes. I actually don't have any proof that celery could help dry eyes, but it seems that it does for me.

Some webpage claims its good for ones sexual health, and also is supposed to make men more attractive to women, something to do with a hormone found in celery. I had never heard of that.

Its very low calorie, is that way people think it has 'no nutritional value'?

He's wrong. Celery is a completely amazing source of minerals like leafy greens are. Vegetables in general are low calories, but that doesn't equal no nutritional value. It's really a great food for obtaining electrolytes when needed. It naturally has sodium in it, so adding more doesn't make sense. Besides alone, it tastes good with spices like cayenne or curry powder and/or dipped in olive oil.

I use to not like celery until I became raw. Then after years of celery soup, I decided to taste it alone and realized I actually really liked it. I can eat it like I use to eat chips. So fun.

Detailed info:
[www.zhion.com]
[www.whfoods.com]

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2010 08:01PM by GilmoreGirl.

GilmoreGirl,
Those are great ideas to try. I never thought of placing cayenne or curry powder on it. I grew up making peanut butter and raisin celery logs. That was actually the only way I could eat it back then, which I really enjoyed. And I actually learned to like it plain after trying raw.

Have you tried chinese celery? There is also some other variety which is very thin, and closer to the wild type. It has a stronger flavor, deeper green and crisper. Actually that is probably because chinese celery is usually sold with the roots attached. I planted the roots to see what would happen, and it regrew a new top. However, it didn't especially like it when I harvested some of the new stalks.

Celery has lots of magnesium, if I am not mistaken. If you drink a concoction of apple and celery juice, it will make you nice and relaxed before bed. It also has some phytochemical that has to do with virility or something. All veggies have nutrients, even if we were told otherwise before. For instance, radishes always got a bad rap and now we know that they have sulphur. Same with mushrooms and vitamin D.

iceberg lettuce is still crap though, right?,lol

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iceberg:
[nutritiondata.self.com]

Center for Academic Publications: crap

[ci.nii.ac.jp]

david

hmmm, yeah, that still seems nutritionally pretty low... at least compared to other lettuces...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

The darker the lettuces the more nutrient rich they are such as romaine etc.

But iceberg is still a decent source of nutrients and its tasty too.

Powerlifter,
To each their own I guess. I don't really care for iceberg lettuce. Especially the wilty cracked type wrapped in plastic, and sitting in water. My partners sister really likes it however. In fact its about the only veggie she and her husband eats. For some reason they hate any other type of lettuce. She has this habit of cutting to the center to take out the tender white portions, and leaves the outer collection of leaves.

My main lettuce preference would be organic romaine of course as its darker, more nutrient rich and well is tastier in my opinion.

But sometimes it just isn't available here and i have no choice but to pick up iceberg, i tend to go for the non-goitrogen containing vegetables for raw and the goitrogen containing vegetables for my vegan cooked meals. Seen as how cooking/steaming inactivates them.

What other types of lettuce do you guys have access too, someone said something about butter lettuce im sure it was swazye on here. Never seen it myself.

Butter lettuce is good, usually comes with roots attached in a plastic container. There is a red tipped variety I like, I don't remember what its called. I planted some that were supposed to be completely red, but never sprouted. (this past summer) Many loose leaf varieties are tender and tasty.

I like endive a lot, but don't get that very often, its usually expensive. Then there is the raddicho.

I enjoy red lettuce, and romaine, and well, pretty much all lettuce except iceberg, I just dont like the flavor, although the texture I enjoy, I like a good crunch...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I've never tried chinese celery, sounds interesting. Wouldn't be the thick, crunchiness I like from regular celery so I guess it would be used in something blended. I still don't like the flavor of it added to certain dishes. Like I use to hate tuna w/celery and I still would if I ate it. Blended into a soup it delicious.

I stayed away from iceberg for a really long time thinking it had no value. Then I realized it did so I occasionally will buy it. A good quality, organic iceberg actually tastes pretty good. Though since I tend to need an abundance of minerals, I try to stick with other greens instead.

Simple Raw Recipes & Health Tips

Banana Who, thanks for the nighty-night recipe, I'll have to try that! I love celery, even when it's sort of bitter. There's something about it that's really tasty to me.

The kids prefer iceburg lettuce because it's very crisp and mild. I discovered this on accident when my little man began stealing the garnishes from our plates at restaurants (usually the kids say "PeeEweNO!" to salad). He actually requested salad for dinner one night and then again for his school lunch the next day! So I'm going to start buying iceburg lettuce and mixing it with my usual baby greens or romaine. He'll eventually develop a taste of darker leafy greens I'm sure, iceberg is a great start.

Thats a good point when i was a kid one of the only vegetables i liked was iceberg lettuce its the crunch like you say and mild taste. Quite alot of the greens have a very strong taste.

My partner is really munching down on the celery. I am like "huh?!!!" since he said he didn't eat it because he thought it wasn't useful. I guess I convienced him otherwise, or maybe he just likes it.

He still adds salt to it! he claims this bunch tastes bitter. I don't know what his deal is, but I guess hes getting some benefit from eating it, even with added salt? I don't know where he got that habit, I certainly never heard of anyone adding salt to celery before this.

I guess I am too selfish, but I am getting a little irritated that he has taken a liking to my celery, especially with the salt thing. I guess I should be happy he is getting an extra serving or two or three of vegetables a day. Hes also eating my coconut date holiday logs!

Well he'll be getting benefit from any raw produce but adding salt lol seems disgusting if i may say, i just cant imagine it.

I was doing abit of reading today and some countries add salt to salads as normal seems crazy to me. In my SAD days adding salt to potatoes etc was fine but id never add it to raw produce what a way to ruin the natural tastes.

Coco: I don't know if you have a Trader Joe's in your area, but they have organic romaine lettuce that has inner leaves that are more mild. I haven't iceberg in a long time. It is possible to find mild lettuce that is more nutricious than iceberg. Someone mentioned butter lettuce. For some reason I see it with its roots in a plastic container. It is very palatable and soft (buttery).

Why, what's wrong with mixing in some iceberg? That's just what I was planning on doing, the little man will eat that with spinach and maybe even kale (which he likes but cooked). Maybe I can sprinkle in a bit of parsley while I'm at it. I'm so happy to see his tastes have started to mature a bit. The small girl has taken to saying "I don't like bechables" whenever she notices veggies in anything but when she saw him eating salad the other day she insisted on having some too so yay kids! Eat those greens!

powerlifer there are loads of other types of lettuce in the shops. Waitrose do an organic Little Gem which is great, sometimes there are oak leaf varieties which are great too. I find Romaine rather boring really.

I used to grow my own Miner's Lettuce. I bought some seed for planting this spring. Its really its own plant, but very mild and tender. Maybe some of you can try growing this if you are looking for a new type of green. It seems a lot more potent in nutrients also. I usually feel kind of tired, but after eating some of those greens I usually feel more upbeat and energized.

Another one to try is Malabar spinach. I believe its the same plant that is grown to make jute in ropes. Its really a hot weather plant, so that need to be taken into account.

know a good source for miners lettuce seeds? I cant forage it around here, to "city"

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Hi Curator,
I bought mine online at Bountiful gardens. [www.bountifulgardens.org]
I am sure there are other sources. Prior to that I bought it at the San Francisco greenhouse (arboretum) giftshop. Perhaps other greenhouses might have it. Otherwise, there might be some other special online sources.

Its easy to grow, at least when I was living in SF, CA. I had a glass lasgna dish with soil, which I added compost and minerals. I think I used centrum, and some Klamath Lake algae liquid which thawed out during a power outage. That is probably what made the greens so potent. They were just sooo green, almost black. I haven't seen them look that dark on the trails. They would come up between jan and march all on their own in Sf, and then you wouldn't see them again after that.

Another great thing was growing chinese celery, saving the roots and replanting them. I also grew clover which made an interesting addition to salads. Along with dandelion. Its 'strange' when I think about it. I grew a surprising amount from that little pot. It wasn't enough to meet all my needs, to say the least. But it was a very welcome addition to have a bowl or two of extremely fresh greens in the city, if only 2 or 3 times a year.

thanks mislu! my yard here is rather sunny, really really poor poisoned soil though, so I plan on asking the landlord if he would allow me to install tiered planters on the sturdy fence, and on the fence surrounding the front porch, they are made out of old rain gutters I got off craigslist for free... he should be coming over tonight or tomorrow, so I will ask him then, when he can see how nice ive made them look, there is probably a better chance of him being ok with it...we shall see!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?