iceberg lettuce

yes and no.
for personal reasons you can count them or not. heck, to get school lunches anywhere near the veggie servings kids are supposed to get french fries and ketchup get counted as veggies, so if you want to, do so.
for the study's purpose, the people doing the study have stated that for their definition, iceberg isn't a veggie. so while you are doing their study, for them, you can't count it as a veggie.

I don't use iceberg lettuce anymore. I use romaine and spread it with a small amount of crunchy peanut butter.

i love iceburg lettuce. i use it on cheese sandwiches or peanut butter sandwich. it makes me more satisfied and i don't get so hungry after eating.

This actually is a goal that I made on top of the study's requirements, so it's not even data used in the study.. I guess I'm just bothered by the fact that while I understand iceberg's nutritional values are low, a veggie is a veggie and I struggle to eat enough fruits/veggies each day.. I'm on a tight budget, so the 99 cent bag was cost efficient for me :) I'm going to work towards eating greener greens as so many of you have suggested.. Thanks for all the input! I appreciate it!

If you're in a study and the researchers tell you not to count iceberg lettuce as a veggie serving for the study, please don't count it. If you want to count it for your own health, that's up to you, but if you don't comply with instructions for the study, you make the study less valuable. The researchers have specific definitions they have to follow if they're trying to make sure that the different groups in the study ate similar things, or that your group got more or less of certain nutrients. It's not like you're going to destroy the study by counting lettuce, but you will make it just slightly less trustworthy.

Once you're out of the study, I would say count it if counting it makes you more likely to eat a salad instead of something higher in calories. Or, you could count it as half a glass of water if you're counting water. That way you get "credit" for it as a healthy thing, but you won't risk being misled about how much nutrition you're getting.

I agree with everyone else. Iceberg lettuce has little nutritional value and doesn't work as a veggie serving. I enjoy spinach and darker lettuce types.

When I eat iceberg it is just to add the "crunch" factor to a wrap or sandwich. I don't count the calories or as a veggie. It's just texture - filler.

I don't think of iceberg as a veggie. It's more like a crunchy glass of water, since it has such a high concentration of water. I eat salads a lot. If I counted iceberg as a vegetable, I wouldn't
be able to get in enough servings of the nutrient rich veggies. It may take awhile to change your taste buds to get accustomed to eating dark green leafy veggies, but once you have, you will think of iceberg as the "junk food" of the lettuce family.

Yes, iceberg lettuce is basically water disguised as a vegetable. Go for spinach or other dark greens.

I stopped eating iceburg all together. I prefer spinach with more nutritional valeu.

I agree with SUNSHINE. The darker the green the more nutritional value. Iceberg lettuce is tasteless and boring. The only thing that is going for it is that it is cheap.

All leafy Greens have some nutrition, however the darker the green the better it is for you. Count the calories? About 10 calories per cup, so why bother. Romaine has more B vitamins than iceberg and even a better choice is spinach or Kale. Good Luck

I'm participating in a weightloss study through a local university and was recently told that I shouldn't be counting iceberg lettuce (2 cups) as a serving of veggies because of it's low nutritional value. While I definitely see that darker greens have more nutritional value, when doing a google search, I see plenty of articles that state that it does have some nutritional value.. There's even an article on SP... slide 11 of 11 here.. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/slides
how.asp?show=34&page=11

What do you think.. count as a serving of veggies or not???