Are only LEAVES considered Greens?

What about Celery, Cucumber, Cabbage, Zucchini, etc.

What is so great about getting greens in your diet? Is it because of the chlorophyll? Doesn't any food with a green pigment contain chlorophyll in it? I heard even hemp seeds which are slightly green contain chlorophyll in them. How much of it do we need each day?

Obviously, I like vegetables, but don't like leaves. So I need to know.

Yeah, usually "greens" referes to leaves (so out of that list, cabbage is the only leaf. I think greens are particularly important for their mineral content, which can be difficult to get elsewhere.

See this table I put together: [www.rawrob.com] (it's a PDF)

Look at the mineral content of the wild greens, spinach, watercress and rocket (arugula) and compare with lettuce and celery. I just looked up cucumber (on [www.nutritiondata.com]), it is similar (in minerals) to celery.

Rob

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Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

Thanks Rob. So the main reason for eating greens is for the minerals? Aren't there a lot of minerals in nuts and seeds too? Funny, I never thought of cabbage as a leaf since it is not soft and is crunchy like vegetables are. I like cabbage, but unfortunetly on your chart it is low in calcium. But almonds and sesame seeds have a lot of calcium right?

What about sea vegetables? Like Nori and Dulse and Kelp etc. Could you get enough minerals just by supplementing your diet with sea vegetables and wheatgrass juice, chlorella and all. Witho ut having to eat huge bowls of leafy salads? I heard about this one sea vegetable high in calcium, iron and zinc, but I don't know how 'clean' it is cause it comes out Florida lakes or something. Kind of concerned me. Since it's an "invasive" aquatic weed, some sites say they dump chemicals and herbicides in the waters to control it. It's called Hydrilla. I'm kind of scared to take it because of that, I don't know how or where the stuff is harvested that they use for the dried powders of it. Do you know anything about it? [www.google.com]
Yet it has 624 mg of Calcium per TB. Much more then those dark greens. It also says it has a ton of B12 too, but I don't know about that. I am concerned that it is is so high in Manganese, I've heard bad things about Manganese. [www.iherb.com]

Greens are alkalising while nuts and seeds are acid forming (in general) so getting everything you need from them might not be the best idea for the body.

Sea vegetables are great, I love them and yes, they are mineral rich.

I think the key is eating a good variety of foods, and eat foods you like. I've found that after eating wild greens almost every day for the last 3 to 4 years, I actually like some of the ones I originally found bitter.

Rob

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Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]