And “cabbage lettuce” implies the existence of “non-cabbage lettuce.” Otherwise, why not just call it lettuce?
– implies not only its existence, but its common use among the people saying “cabbage lettuce”. I’m sure leaf lettuces long predate the 1800’s; probably by at least a couple of millenia.
Somehow it wasn’t rebranded after 1912.
Or great in a mixed salad with cherry tomatoes, snap peas, scallions, carrots, other greens etc.
The nutritional thing is overblown. Iceberg lettuce alone doesn’t have a lot of nutrients, but you’re not going to get a hefty % of your RDAs from other lettuces, which by themselves don’t have much to offer in terms of taste either. Add some mustard greens, Malabar spinach, purslane etc. to your salads to enhance flavor.
Few foods have as satisfying a crunch as hearts of iceberg lettuce.
Oooh, and let us know here. I don’t always watch your shows, but I’d certainly watch that one.
Okay, i missed that one. Do you know offhand how i can search for it?
It’s more than overblown. It’s flat out irrelevant. Are we all going to start eating donuts because they have more nutritional content than iceberg lettuce?
It’s called iceburg lettuce because it will grow in one, which is an important trait when gardening in the Midwest. We don’t get a big growing season here and I am a late plant starter.
Just speculation, but lettuce varieties are today somewhat divided into ‘loose leaf’ and ‘head forming’ types (the latter being the category containing iceberg). It is possible that ‘cabbage lettuce’ meant the varieties that form tight spherical heads, like a typical cabbage.
Shredded iceberg in a sub (edit: submarine sandwich!) is amazing.
I went on a Chinese lettuce (celtuce) kick earlier in the year and bought & ate about four batches. It’s cooked, very mild flavor with slight salad-lettuce aroma. Weird looking vegetable for sure.
That was my guess also, in a post a few above the one of mine that you quoted.
IMHO this is a significant overstatement.
The vast majority of the focus on single foods as nutritional or healthy or not is overplayed. The overall pattern and complete picture is what matters. And the complete picture is made of the parts. Salads of iceberg are mostly nice neutral crunch vehicles for the yummy Blue Cheese or dressings. The lettuce has little nutritional value even on a per calorie basis. It really barely counts as food. If someone is looking to follow the overall guidance to have half your plate be vegetables and fruits and they are counting the wedge of iceberg as that? Nah.
A salad with mixed darker greens, shredded cabbage, sprouts, chopped other vegetables? Has lots of nutritional value per calorie and generally travels with less heavy calorie dressing as it has lots of flavor not just crunch. It counts as food.
Sorry, I missed that, but yeah, we agree
I miss things too!
We had a thread on this, don’t see it resolved anything - but I’ll just note things aren’t usually called demonym thing by the people using that demonym. So them being French radishes but eaten for breakfast elsewhere makes sense.
I eat Iceberg lettuce for the crunch on a sandwich in a salad.
I’m not looking for nutrition. The sandwich is already on whole wheat bread and loaded with protein from the meat and cheese.
Salads are appetizers. Ordered with a steak abmnd sweet potato dinner. Sweet potatoes are full of nutrients.
That’s why a chef’s salad has eggs, ham, and cheese. That’s the nutrition. The lettuce adds the crunch.
There is nothing wrong with not having salads as a meaningful part of the nutrition of a meal. Having lettuce as texture to offset the actual food, whatever value it has or doesn’t have.
But some of us do sometimes have salads as food providing nutrient value. Or care about the flavor more than the texture in a particular use case. Iceberg fails there.
Your system does also need vitamins, flavonoids, and fiber. A good salad’s going to add a lot of those. (A good salad, by my definition of good, has other vegetables in it besides lettuce, and that lettuce isn’t iceberg. Your Definition May Vary and pretty obviously does.)
I was describing my own diet. I didn’t mean to imply it applied to anyone else.
I rarely make salads at home. I’ve noticed restaurants use various types of lettuce in salads. It’s all good and tasty.
I quite like the flavor of iceberg. It’s mild, slightly sweet, slightly bitter, and tastes like leaves.
I don’t really like salads that have lots of vegetables in them. I try to eat vegetables regularly, but i generally prefer just a few in any particular dish.
I prefer romaine lettuce and particularly like Caesar salads.
I would consider iceberg lettuce to be the most important ingredient in a veggie salad. I can work with romaine, but I prefer to have iceberg with it.
It’s all about mouthfeel. I went to a place a few weeks ago that served a salad with arugula with the primary ingredient. I couldn’t eat it. But arugula paired with iceberg is delectable. Same with spinach.
I view salads the same way I view pasta. They are delivery vehicles for the healthy foods that I wouldn’t eat otherwise. The only things I can’t make taste good with iceberg or pasta are mushrooms, seafood, and black olives.
That’s why I called the nutritional value of iceberg irrelevant earlier in this thread. I could eat iceberg lettuce forever and never fill up, so it’s all about what you add.