Here in the Bahamas, we eat a lot of salad! Our youngest family member, Joe (now 18 months) is only just starting to show an interest in sharing our salads with us – and he’s taken a particular shine to lettuce!
But whilst ‘salads’ in general have the reputation of being healthy, many see lettuce as having little nutritional value.
So IS lettuce a healthy food in itself? Does it REALLY offer anything useful to baby’s diet?
Well, the answer is that it depends on the lettuce!
Iceberg lettuce – which may be the most popular type of all – is actually the LEAST nutritious. Whilst it may be useful for dieting adults (it contains no fat, next to no calories or cholesterol and a little fibre), it also contains very few important nutrients and brings little to the dishes its served with except for a nice, crispy texture!
Romaine lettuce, on the other hand, is far more valuable to the diet! Perhaps the biggest clue to its benefits is its colour – those green leaves contain beta-carotene (no, not all fruits and veggies containing beta-carotene are orange!). You can read more about how your baby’s body uses beta-carotene here.
Romaine lettuce (or cos lettuce as we used to call it in England) also contains vitamin K, folate, vitamin C, plus lots of other vitamins and minerals.
Here are some figures we obtained from Nutrition Data showing the differences in nutrients between 1 cup of shredded iceberg lettuce and 1 cup of shredded romaine. Please note that these are % daily values based on an adult diet – we’ve used them merely to demonstrate the differences between the two varieties…
| Nutrient | Iceberg | Romaine |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre | 3% | 4% |
| Protein | 1g | 1g |
| Vitamin A | 7% | 82% |
| Vitamin C | 3% | 19% |
| Calcium | 1% | 2% |
| Iron | 2% | 3% |
Clearly the healthiest choice, romaine lettuce is also considered to be low on the list of foods likely to cause any allergic reaction. Of course, it’s hardly a something you’d use to make a puree… we’ve always started offering our little ones lettuce as a finger food with meals when they have teeth and are chewing well!
It’s good to know that – served alongside foods that provide the calories your growing baby needs – romaine lettuce adds texture, colour AND some useful nutrients to your baby’s diet.
Kay
Friday 1st of April 2011
I just tried a Jamie Oliver recipe using green peas, onions and Boston lettuce. The lettuce is cooked lightly and it turned out a bit like steamed spinach, but milder in flavor. My 11-month-old loved it.
The Best Sources of Folate For Your Baby | The Homemade Baby Food Recipes Blog
Friday 3rd of September 2010
[...] Another fantastic source of folate is Romaine lettuce, which we recently discussed in this post on our blog. [...]