Lettuce: Types of Lettuce & Their Nutritional Value

Types of Lettuce

There are four main types of lettuce: crisphead, romaine, leaf, and butterhead.

• Crisphead lettuce looks like a cabbage, with leaves that are crisp and tightly packed. The most common type of crisphead lettuce is iceberg. Its inner leaves are usually whiter than those of other types of lettuce.
• Romaine lettuce has become popular in recent years, especially as the primary lettuce in Caesar salad. Its leaves are long and greener than those of crisphead lettuce, although it has a similar crisp texture.
• Leaf lettuce has flat leaves that are connected at the stalk, rather than clustered in a head. Red leaf, green leaf, and oak leaf are all examples of leaf lettuce.
• Butterhead lettuce looks different from the other types of lettuce because its leaves are more spread out and have a more grassy appearance. Boston and Bibb lettuce are both examples of butterhead lettuce.

Some other vegetables are often colloquially referred to as lettuce, but they are actually a different species of vegetables. Examples include arugula, watercress and mizuna.

Lettuce Nutrition Facts

Most types of lettuce contain vitamin C, beta-carotene, folic acid, and dietary fiber. They even contain a small amount of calcium. A good rule of thumb when choosing a type of lettuce is that the darker the leaf, the more nutritious the lettuce.

Iceberg lettuce is infamous for being the least nutritious of the various types of lettuce. Although it does contain small amounts of various nutrients, it contains very small amounts of them. When making a salad, shy away from using primarily iceberg lettuce, and mix together a small amount of iceberg with romaine and other lettuces to get more nutritional benefits out of your salad.

Lettuce is a great dieting food because it contains the mythical “negative calories.” Although negative calories do not truly exist, eating lettuce provides the same effect that the negative calories would cause.