10 Reasons Why Eating Green Leafy Vegetables is Good For Your Health

Right from the ancient days, leafy greens have been an important portion of the daily diet. Being power-packed with a variety of vitamins and minerals makes them a mandatory addition to every healthy diet plan. The fat and sugar content of green leafy vegetables is minimal, which also makes them fit for a weight loss diet.

They also protect your body by strengthening the immune system, slowing down signs of aging, and preventing heart diseases, high blood pressure, and cancers.

# Support Optimal Brain Function

Want to support memory and reasoning as you enter your golden years? Eat your greens! A recent study published in Neurology found that those who ate the most leafy greens each day had slower rates of cognitive decline compared to those who ate the least. In fact, the greens-eaters had the memory equivalent of someone 11 years younger! This was even true after adjusting for other factors including lifestyle, education, and overall health.

# Fight Belly Bloat

If you struggle with bloating, whether caused by diet, hormones, gut infections, or other digestive issues, there’s a secret ingredient in leafy greens that could help. Potassium, a mineral and electrolyte found in abundance in greens, is essential to keep an optimal fluid balance in your body. A diet high in sodium (often due to an overreliance on processed foods) can trigger or worsen bloating, and must be kept in check by adequate potassium intake–roughly 4,700 mg/day according to the USDA’s 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines. A single cup of cooked spinach contains a whopping 840 mg of potassium to get you well on your way to meeting your daily requirements.

# Make Your Skin Glow

Beta-carotene, the plant pigment that we normally associate with carrots and other yellow-orange veggies, is also hiding in leafy greens. Think of leaves changing color in the fall. As they lose chlorophyll (the pigment that makes them green), you can see the red, orange, and yellow pigments those leaves contain underneath. It’s these vibrant colors that are also responsible for the amazing health benefits of leafy greens.

Beta-carotene can give your skin a youthful glow and even works from the inside-out as a natural sunscreen, protecting your skin from harmful UV rays!4 Kale is one of the top sources of beta-carotene, and research shows that cooking, juicing, or dehydrating greens helps your body better absorb this carotenoid.

# Relieve Stress

For a natural way to relieve your stress, start every day with a big green smoothie! Leafy greens are an excellent source of folate, which helps your body produce mood-regulating neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin.

Plus, the magnesium found in green leafy vegetables can help support optimal vascular health.

# Support Bone Health

All those “Got Milk?” ads might have you believe that drinking milk is the only way to build strong bones. However, research has shown that milk consumption has no protective effect on fracture risk and may even increase the risk of hip fractures among women.8 That’s yet another great reason to ditch dairy for good! Instead, you can get plenty of calcium for supporting optimal bone health from dark, leafy greens. Green veggies such as broccoli and kale also contain tons of all-important vitamin K.

# Support Healthy Aging

Are you looking to age healthfully? Who isn’t? Greens have the power to delay the shortening of telomeres, the protective caps on our DNA that shorten with age. Once its telomeres are completely gone, the cell dies. Broccoli sprouts, in particular, seem to have a superb ability to preserve telomere length.

# Improve Inflammatory Response

Though this may be a no-brainer, I want to re-emphasize how important it is to support a healthy inflammatory response in order to protect yourself from a battery of chronic illnesses. Leafy greens contain antioxidants and polyphenols, the disease-fighting compounds found in plant foods.

# Help Balance Sugars

Eating a serving of leafy greens with every meal can support appropriate blood glucose levels. Even just including a little over one extra serving of greens daily can make a big difference!

Not to mention, if you have a thyroid condition, dramatic swings in blood sugar encourage your body to convert more T4 to Reverse T3, the inactive form of thyroid hormone.

# Support Optimal Gut Health

Do you struggle with leaky gut, food sensitivities, or autoimmunity? If so, getting more greens into your diet could help. A recently discovered gene known as T-bet that gets switched on by cruciferous veggies such as broccoli or brussels sprouts instructs precursor cells in your intestinal lining to produce innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). ILCs protect your body against gut infections and inflammation, control food allergies and intolerances, support a healthy immune response, and seal the leaks in your gut. They also protect your body from bad bacteria, while the fiber in greens feeds your good bacteria, making leafy greens an all-around great choice for anyone dealing with gastrointestinal distress of any kind.

# Tame the Toxins

Taming the toxins is an essential component of The Myers Way, and one of the easiest ways to do this is by getting more greens in your diet. Greens are expert detoxifiers, thanks to chlorophyll–the pigment that makes greens…green! Chlorophyll-rich foods such as spirulina, chlorella, parsley, and alfalfa bind to heavy metals and toxins in your blood and carry them out of your body. Chlorophyll also helps cleanse your liver to support your body’s natural ability to detox, and supports immune function to keep toxins from collecting in your body in the first place!