If there’s one activity Americans love doing quite often, it’s eating out. Going out to dinner can take the stress out of cooking, be part of an enjoyable night out and give customers a chance to try a new neighborhood restaurant.
According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, households with incomes of $100,000 or higher are responsible for 36 percent of the total spending on food away from home. Additionally, the average fine dining cost per person in the U.S. amounts to $28.55.
As elegant as fine dining can be, there are also many benefits to eating at home and eating healthy. One eating trend that has caught on in recent years is micro greens. They’ve been around for 20-30 years and micro greens are a tiny form (seedlings) of edible greens produced from very young vegetables, herbs and other plants.
For those wanting to improve their health, organic micro greens can be used in almost anything. You can sneak micro greens in a smoothie, pile organic micro greens on a salad or add them to a sandwich for some additional crunch. There are perhaps 100 types of common garden flowers that are edible and palatable and dozens of micro green varieties micro greens. Some of the most common micro green varieties include:
- Kale
- Broccoli
- Radishes
- Arugula
- Beets
- Sprouts
Not only are there many micro green varieties, both organic and true leaf, but eating them provides numerous benefits, which include:
- Nutrient-richness: Micro greens are packed with nutrients, even more so than fully grown, full size vegetables. Depending on what you’re eating, you can expect to find nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin K and vitamin C among many others. For those with certain health restrictions, keep in mind that while micro greens are full of nutrients, take care that you’re not getting too much of a certain vitamin or mineral that your doctor has told you to keep at certain levels.
- Improves heart health: Every 34 seconds, someone suffers a heart attack in the United States. In fact, about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack. Of those, 525,000 are a first heart attack and 210,000 happen in people who have already had a heart attack.
Any way you slice it, heart heath is important. Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and about 610,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. every year. Heart disease costs the United States about $200 billion each year. That number includes health care services, medications and lost productivity.
So how can micro greens help? For starters, eating vegetables helps lower the risk of heart disease and in addition, adding micro green varieties to your diet, such as red cabbage, can help decrease some heart disease risk factors. - They’re easy: For those who want to eat healthier, but aren’t exactly expert gardeners, growing micro greens is an easy and convenient way to get started. Growing organic micro greens doesn’t require the use of a full garden or backyard. If you’re got soil, water, seeds and a window, you can get started right away.
With numerous health benefits and many varieties, adding true leaf microgreens to your diet is an easy way to eat healthier. It might also help your kids eat their vegetables too. When it comes to food presentation or plating, children prefer six food colors and seven different food components while adults prefer three of each. Loading up a child’s plate with colorful micro green varieties might just be the perfect way to ensure they’re eating their vegetables.
