If you ask us which superfoods we love best, we’re going to point you in the direction of dark leafy greens.
Greens not only contain tons of body-powering nutrients, they come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes, and flavor profiles that gives them magnificent versatility. If you’re a savory person, you can easily add a rainbow of greens to your soups, stews, salads, and side dishes. And if you’re more of a sweet tooth, you can blend your greens into sweet green smoothies.
But which greens are the best of the bunch? There are a few that stand out when it comes to getting the biggest bang for your buck.
Here is our list of our top 3 powerhouse veggies! If you incorporate these leafy green veggies into your regular rotation, you’ll quickly notice the benefits.
3 Powerhouse Veggies You Should Be Eating
- Swiss Chard: Swiss chard is one of the most brilliantly colored greens in the produce section — you can find its stalks in vibrant magenta, orange, and yellow hues. It’s rich in vitamins A, C, and K, and it’s a great source of calcium and magnesium. It also contains an antioxidant called syringic acid, which provides anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective benefits. The flavor of this green is slightly sweet and earthy when cooked. And make sure you don’t throw out the stalks! They’re highly nutritious and add a great crunchy texture to your dish.
- Collards: Collards greens are a thick, hearty green with a bit of a bite to them. They’re packed with vitamin C, K, folate, and soluble fiber. They’re also high in inflammation-busting, immune-boosting antioxidants and peptides like glucosinolates and glutathione that help detoxify and keep your body strong. Collards can hold their own as a healthy side dish and make a great sturdy bread replacement as a wrap or bun.
- Dandelion Greens: Dandelion greens arrive in the spring when our bodies are due for spring cleaning! They get your blood pumping and help your organs clean house, thanks to a compound called taraxacin. Taraxacin stimulates the bile duct to boost digestion and detoxification, and gives them they’re signature bitter taste. And it’s worth getting past that bitterness! This lesser-known superfood is a nutritional goldmine. Compared to spinach, it has eight times more antioxidants, two times more calcium, three times more vitamin A, and five times more vitamin K and E. Plus its leaves are rich in a prebiotic fiber called inulin. Inulin feeds the gut’s population of friendly bacteria which help boost your immune function and reduce inflammation throughout the body.
Here’s a quick shopping and storing tip:
When choosing any of these greens at the store or market, look for bright leaves with a crisp texture (no wilting!). If you want to get the best lifespan out of your greens, wash them immediately to remove any dirt or residue. Then gently dry them by hand or leave them out to dry on a towel on your countertop for a few hours after washing. Washed and dried greens will keep in your fridge for up to 5 days.
It’s also important to make sure you buy organic greens. Conventional greens are heavily sprayed with pesticides and herbicides like glyphosate. These chemicals can cause major damage to the body when ingested over time, resulting in health issues like kidney disease, chronic inflammation, and liver cancer.
For food storage, we love using beeswax wrap to store our produce instead of plastic. Plastic can leach into your food and cause oxidative stress and increased inflammation in your body over time. These beeswax wraps are reusable, biodegradable, and nontoxic to help keep your food clean and nourishing.
With love and lots of greens,
If you like to discover more ways to add these greens to your diet, we invite you to join our online community! As a welcome-gift, we’ll send you our free Green Smoothie eCookbook, a collection of more of our favorite easy smoothie recipes!
We also share new recipes, free live calls with us, and more healthy lifestyle tips, plus let you know when our next group cleanse is coming. Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here.
