Guest guest Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 > My question is this, are there any health benefits to iceburg lettuce, at all? Iceberg lettuce isn't a good food imo, I avoid it. The leaves and especially the core contain an opium like compound which is detrimental to health. This compound is also found in oak leaf lettuce and some of it's non culinary relatives. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0829532.html " A narcotic from the thickened juice of some Lactuca species has been used as an opium substitute. " http://www.foodservice.com/news_homepage_expandtitle_fromhome.cfm?passid=9837 " Though the species are unrelated, the smell of lettuce is rather like that of the opium poppy because they share certain alkaloids. Mr Stobart notes the milky latex from one species of lettuce is dried like opium and used as a raw material in drug manufacture. " I have heard that you can dry the cores of iceberg lettuce and smoke them to get high. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 29, 2004 Report Share Posted October 29, 2004 > My question is this, > >are there any health benefits to iceburg lettuce, at all? > > > > huehue Have read not to eat iceberg lettuce because it draws cadmium out of soil. Wanita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 1, 2004 Report Share Posted November 1, 2004 I love the iceberg lettuce I grow in my market garden (Crispino)!! It is much greener in color than what is found in the supermarket, but still very crisp and refreshing. Kids love it, too (mild, not bitter at all)! Thanks, Mike for putting in words what I could never say so eloquently. Vivian ******************************************* The more relevant response to Huehue's query is that one's consumption of iceberg lettuce should be based on the same criterion as one's consumption of the other lettuces: the quality of the source. Criteria based on nutritional properties intrinsic to iceberg lettuce as a food category are not nearly as important as criteria based on soil quality, pesticide usage, and other extrinsic issues. Pretty much any whole food like iceberg lettuce grown with the best agricultural methods will be an absolutely fantastic food. On the other hand, quite simply, if it's not coming from your own garden or a local organic farm with excellent soil, then I'd not only skip the iceberg lettuce, but the other lettuces too. The idea of buying iceberg lettuce from a supermarket is downright horrifying. And as far as enjoying iceberg lettuce at restaurants, you can fairly well assume they are using the worst quality stuff. I'd personally rather just go hungry for a few hours than eat stuff like that. In sum, I think the benefits of iceberg lettuce are not nearly as important as the perils of eating food from bad sources, and eating whole foods from great sources always has nutritional benefits. I think this echoes one of the big themes of this NT/WAPF community: nutrition goes way beyond food category; source quality, method of processing, etc are typically more important. Mike SE Pennsylvania The best way to predict the future is to invent it. --Alan Kay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 1, 2004 Report Share Posted November 1, 2004 Hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ..... >Yes -- with raw blue cheese dressing and real bacon bits. Heaven! ) >Vivian > > > mmm...wedge salad... > B. MFJ I wanna live! I wanna explore the Universe! And I wanna eat pie! ~Urgo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 2, 2004 Report Share Posted November 2, 2004 > Re: question about lettuce > > > >Hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ..... > > >>Yes -- with raw blue cheese dressing and real bacon bits. Heaven! ) >>Vivian Geeeeezzzz...can you all stop talking about *food*. Some of us are trying to water fast here. Have a little compassion. Sheesh, you'd think this was a list about food, not butts. Suze Fisher Lapdog Design, Inc. Web Design & Development http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine http://www.westonaprice.org ---------------------------- " The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " -- Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher. The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics <http://www.thincs.org> ---------------------------- > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.