Red Cabbage vs Red Lettuce – Which is Healthier?

Our Verdict

When comparing red cabbage to red lettuce, we picked the red cabbage.

Why?

It was close! But…

In terms of macros, red cabbage has more than 2x the fiber, more than 2x the carbs, and slightly more protein, making for an easy win for red cabbage in this round.

Note: this happens often, by the way, that something has the same numerical (by multiple) increase in fiber and carbs, and we declare it the winner; it’s important to understand that these things do not cancel each other out when they’re scaling equally. By this we mean: if we say fiber is good, carbs are bad (the latter isn’t true; we need carbs to live, but carbs without fiber can indeed be bad), then let’s look at how much we need of each. Different advisory bodies say we need anywhere from 25g/day fiber to 40g/day fiber. Suffice it to say, we need a lot more than 40g/day carbs for regular maintenance of life. Which means that if carbs and fiber in a food are increased by the same amount, gram for gram, then this is increasingly good, because we’ll reach the daily requirement for fiber a lot sooner than we’ll reach the daily requirement for carbs.

Another way of looking at it would be if instead of looking at the grams of fiber or carbs, we look at how much each food provides of the RDA, then it becomes very clear very quickly why we prioritize the fiber figure, because each gram increase of fiber is a much bigger %-of-RDA increase, than the equivalent per-gram figure for carbs. Thus, much more relevant for health considerations.

Ok, back to the usual format of comparisons:

Moving on to the vitamins next, red cabbage has more of vitamins B3, B5, B6, B7, and C, while red lettuce has more of vitamins A, B2, B9, E, and K. That’s a 5:5 tie with a similar average margin of difference, so we’ll call this round a respectable tie and point to them both having very good, but different, merits.

Looking at minerals, red cabbage mas more calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium, while red lettuce has more copper, iron, and selenium. A marginal win for red cabbage here.

In other considerations, they each boast a comparable array of polyphenols, so it’s a tie in this round.

Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for red cabbage, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is best!

Want to learn more?

You might like:

What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

Enjoy!