Iceberg Lettuce vs. Romaine Lettuce

In a comparison of iceberg lettuce vs. romaine lettuce, romaine lays a “nutritional smackdown” on iceberg. The following table gives a side-by-side comparison of iceberg lettuce and romaine lettuce per one-cup raw serving (shredded).

Interestingly, although each is based on a one-cup serving, the iceberg lettuce weighs in at 72 grams whereas the romaine is a lightweight at 47 grams. What’s more is that romaine lettuce contains an overall higher amount of nutrients. So, iceberg is more dense and contains fewer nutrients? Yes siree bob, no doubt about it—romaine packs a nutritional punch in the lettuce arena.

This nutritional data was obtained from the USDA National Nutrient Database. Here, I am just posting the more interesting figures found. For a complete look at the nutritional profiles of these two lettuce types, a simple search on the USDA database will bring up the information.

	Iceberg	Romaine
calories	10	8
fiber	0.9 g	1 g
protein	0.65 g	0.53 g
sugars	1.42 g	0.56 g
potassium	102 mg	116 mg
iron	0.30 mg	0.46 mg
calcium	13 mg	16 mg
vitamin C	2 mg	11.3 mg
folate (total)	21 mcg	64 mcg
carotene (beta)	215 mcg	2456 mcg
vitamin A (IU)	361 IU	4094 IU
vitamin K	17.4 mcg	48.2 mcg