Healthy vegetables: the more colorful the better? Not always!It all depends – are you at your ideal weight? Do you think you may be Pre-Diabetic or a Type ll Diabetic? Are you having trouble losing weight? Do you think you are having too much sugar in your diet? I used to think that the more colorful the better – that is until I wanted to lose a few pounds and couldn’t seem to get those pounds off – even though I was eating a low enough calorie diet. I discovered that some of the vegetables I was eating were contributing to my relative hyper-insulemia from too much hidden sugar and thus my body was not going to let go of stored fat, having plenty of stored glucose (glucagon) to feed off of. Remember, no matter how organic, how sprouted, how colorful a food is, if it has a high carb count – even if it’s a “complex” carb, it turns into sugar. Four grams of any kind of carb that turns into sugar is metabolized the same way as one teaspoon of white sugar – yuck!
Check out this list of nutrient values for vegetables – you may be as surprised as I was.
|
Food Item |
Portion |
Carb g |
Fiber g |
Fat g |
Protein g |
Cal |
| Artichoke | 1 each | 13.4 | 6.5 | 0.2 | 4.2 | 60 |
| Asparagus spears | 6 each | 3.8 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 22 |
| Beans, green | 0.5 cup | 4.9 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 22 |
| Bok Choi | 1 cup | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 9 |
| Broccoli | 0.5 cup | 3.9 | 2.3 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 22 |
| Brussels sprouts | 6 each | 10.9 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 49 |
| Cabbage, green | 0.5 cup | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 8 |
| Cabbage, red | 0.5 cup | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 9 |
| Cabbage, sauerkraut | 0.5 cup | 5.1 | 3.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 22 |
| Cabbage, savoy | 0.5 cup | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 9 |
| Carrots, medium | 1 each | 7.3 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 31 |
| Cauliflower | 6 each | 4.4 | 2.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 25 |
| Celery stalk | 1 each | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 6 |
| Celery, chopped | 1 Tbs | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 1 |
| Chili Pepper | 1 each | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 20 |
| Chilies, green, chopped | 1 Tbs | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3 |
| Collards | 4 oz-wt | 7.3 | 4.1 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 37 |
| Corn | 0.5 cup | 16.0 | 2.0 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 66 |
| Cucumber, English | 1 each | 4.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 19 |
| Cucumber, small | 0.5 each | 2.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 12 |
| Eggplant | 0.5 cup | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 14 |
| Eggplant, Italian | 0.5 cup | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 14 |
| Endive | 0.5 cup | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 8 |
| Escarole | 0.5 cup | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 4 |
| Fennel | 0.5 cup | 3.2 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 13 |
| Greens, mixed | 1 cup | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 9 |
| Kale | 0.5 cup | 3.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 18 |
| Leeks | 1 each | 12.6 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 54 |
| Lettuce, butter head | 1 cup | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 7 |
| Lettuce, romaine | 1 cup | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 8 |
| Mushroom, portabello | 0.5 cup | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 9 |
| Mushrooms, dried | 2 Tbs | 8.9 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 5.6 | 64 |
| Mushrooms, fresh | 0.5 cup | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 9 |
| Okra | 4 oz-wt | 7.5 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 34 |
| Onions | 1 each | 9.5 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 42 |
| Onions, green | 0.25 cup | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 8 |
| Peas, podded | 0.5 cup | 5.6 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 2.6 | 34 |
| Peas, green | 0.5 cup | 9.9 | 3.4 | 0.3 | 3.8 | 55 |
| Peas, Snow or Chinese Snow, frozen | 0.5 cup | 9.8 | 3.4 | 0.3 | 3.7 | 55 |
| Peas, Snow or Chinese Snow, cooked | 0.5 cup | 5.6 | 1.4 | - | 2.6 | 34 |
| Pepper, green | 0.5 cup | 4.8 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 20 |
| Pepper, red | 0.5 cup | 4.8 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 20 |
| Peppers, jalapeno | 1 each | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 4 |
| Peppers, roasted | 0.5 each | 2.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 10 |
| Potato, sweet | 1 each | 22.4 | 3.1 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 95 |
| Potato, white | 0.5 cup | 15.4 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 66 |
| Pumpkin | 0.5 cup | 9.9 | 3.6 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 42 |
| Radicchio | 0.5 cup | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 5 |
| Radishes | 6 each | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 5 |
| Rhubarb | 0.5 cup | 2.8 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 13 |
| Shallots | 0.25 cup | 6.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 29 |
| Spinach, uncooked | 1 cup | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 7 |
| Squash, acorn | 0.5 cup | 14.9 | 4.5 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 57 |
| Squash, butternut | 0.5 cup | 10.8 | 2.9 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 41 |
| Squash, spaghetti | 0.5 cup | 5.0 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 21 |
| Squash, summer | 0.5 cup | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 11 |
| Squash, zucchini | 1 each | 5.7 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 27 |
| Swiss chard | 0.5 cup | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 3 |
| Tomato, plum | 1 each | 4.2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 19 |
| Tomato, small | 1 each | 4.2 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 19 |
| Tomatoes, canned | 0.5 cup | 5.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 23 |
| Tomatoes, cherry | 6 each | 4.7 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 21 |
| Tomatoes, chopped | 0.5 cup | 3.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 16 |
| Tomatoes, sun dried, oil-packed | 0.25 cup | 6.4 | 1.6 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 59 |
| Turnips | 0.5 cup | 3.8 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 16 |
| Waterchestnuts | 0.5 cup | 8.7 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 35 |
| Watercress | 0.5 cup | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 2 |