Nutrient Dense Veggies
Channel: UPMC
Date: 2024-03-14

Vegetables packed with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber are essential to a healthy diet. 🥦🥗

These are the top 10 most nutrient-dense veggies to add to your next shopping list:

- Watercress
A powerful leafy green loaded with antioxidants, watercress is a valuable addition to any soup, salad, or sandwich.

- Spinach
Adding spinach to your diet is one of the best things you can do for your body (if you haven’t already.)

Spinach can improve your eye, skin, bone, and immune health. It can help prevent cancer, reduce blood pressure, ease digestion, and foster healthy tissue growth. It's high in insoluble fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid, iron, and calcium.

- Kale
This superfood has made a serious comeback on dinner tables in recent years — and for good reason.

Kale is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin K, folate, potassium, calcium, and zinc.

- Brussels Sprouts
These round, nutrient-dense buds are high in fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin K.

- Turnip Greens
Like kale, turnip greens are high in vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, and folate.

- Broccoli 
Broccoli is chock full of antioxidants that reduce inflammation, improve blood sugar levels, boost immunity, and keep your heart healthy.

- Asparagus
Asparagus is full of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, folate, iron, potassium, calcium, and protein.

- Carrots
Carrots are rich in dietary carotenoids, which maintain the body’s immune system and promote healthy skin and aging. Much of this becomes vitamin A in the intestines, which is essential for growth and eye health.

- Garlic
Studies have linked diets rich in garlic to a reduced risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, blood pressure, and diabetes. That's due to the plant’s antioxidant-dense, anti-inflammatory properties.

- Green Peas
These starchy vegetables are higher in calories and carbs than others on this list. But they’re bursting with nutrients like fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate.