What Are the 20 Best and Healthiest Vegetables to Eat?

  • Medical Reviewer: Dany Paul Baby, MD
Medically Reviewed on 7/22/2022

Best and healthiest veggies

Vegetables contain important vitamins, minerals, and fiber that your body needs. The 20 best and healthiest veggies to eat include spinach, broccoli, seaweed, and other veggies.
Vegetables contain important vitamins, minerals, and fiber that your body needs. The 20 best and healthiest veggies to eat include spinach, broccoli, seaweed, and other veggies.

Do you want to improve your diet by adding healthy veggies, but you don't know where to begin? Adding more vegetables may be simple enough, but have you considered which veggies are the best and healthiest? What makes a vegetable healthy, anyway?

Many vegetables contain important vitamins, minerals, and fiber that your body needs. A diet rich in fruit and vegetables can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, and stroke, and even help prevent some types of cancer.

Read on to learn about the 20 best and healthiest vegetables for your diet.

Spinach

Spinach is full of vitamins and nutrients your body needs, including vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and magnesium. Spinach may help your eyesight, help prevent heart disease, and even protect you from some types of cancer.

Broccoli

Broccoli is rich in a plant compound called glucosinolate, and its byproduct sulforaphane, which researchers have found has the potential to prevent cancer.

Like many vegetables, it's best to eat it raw, as this allows for the maximum excretion of sulforaphane.

Seaweed

Seaweed is still a little-known food source in many areas of the U.S., but it is rising in popularity. 

Seaweeds are rich in macronutrients, micronutrients, and fiber.

Bell peppers

You can truly "eat the rainbow" with healthy bell peppers. 

Red peppers can improve brain function with their lycopene, orange and yellow peppers can reduce heart disease and improve vision with their carotenoids, and green peppers can help prevent cancer with their phytochemicals.

Carrots

Is it really true that carrots can improve your eyesight, as is the popular wisdom? According to research, the answer is yes.

Carrots are a nutritious vegetable chock full of a carotenoid called beta carotene, which helps improve overall eyesight. The carotenoid content of carrots can also protect against prostate and colon cancer, as well as. reduce your risks for breast cancer.

Carrots are also a great source of Vitamin A, containing 51% of your daily value.

Brussels sprouts

Like broccoli, brussels sprouts are a healthy cruciferous vegetable that contains sulforaphane, a plant compound that can help you prevent cancer.

Parsley

Parsley is best known as a garnish, but it's also a healthy vegetable you can include in your diet. Parsley can help prevent skin cancer due to its extremely high concentration of myricetin, a flavonoid.

Beets

Beets have a deep red-purple hue, which comes from betalains. Betalains are a kind of pigment that contains antioxidants and has anti-inflammatory properties.

Beets are also a great source of fiber, which can help maintain healthy blood sugar levels and lower your cholesterol.

Cauliflower

Thanks to the popularity of low-carb diets, cauliflower has been in the spotlight in recent years as a healthy, nutrient-rich substitute for rice, mashed potatoes, or even pizza crust.

Cauliflower is high in vitamin C and a good source of folate, a B vitamin that is especially important for pregnant people. Like broccoli and brussels sprouts, cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable that may help protect you from certain types of cancer.

Onions

There is no need to cry about onions; they're a high-nutrient vegetable that contains allicin, which has anti-tumor properties, and research shows us that onions can specifically help to prevent gastrointestinal cancers

Kale

Previously only used in restaurants as a garnish, kale is yet another cancer-preventing cruciferous vegetable on the list, rich in Vitamin K and folate.

Green peas

Peas are a great source of protein and iron. When consumed with other nutrient-rich foods, nutritious green peas can help prevent diabetes and improve digestive health.

Garlic

Never mind your breath: Garlic has been used as a natural medicine for thousands of years. Garlic was believed to treat a variety of ailments and was given to athletes in ancient Greece to enhance athletic performance.

Garlic has been shown to help prevent diabetes, lower blood pressure, and treat infections. Like onions, garlic contains allicin, which may help prevent cancer.

Swiss chard

Just one cup of cooked Swiss chard provides all the vitamin A and K you need for the day, providing much-needed maintenance to your eyes, bones, and immune system. 

Like broccoli and brussels sprouts, Swiss chard contains sulforaphane, which makes it a good vegetable for cancer prevention.

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Asparagus

Asparagus is a great source of folate, a B vitamin that can lower your risk of heart disease and may even help prevent Alzheimer's disease.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a popular vegetable that can help fight against aging and heart disease.

This is due to the antioxidants in sweet potatoes. Antioxidants have the ability to fight off free radicals, which damage DNA and trigger inflammation.

Collard greens

Need a boost to your vitamin A? Try collard greens, which contain 308% of the recommended daily value.

Watercress

A source of carotenoids, watercress can help fight heart disease and lower blood pressure.

Red cabbage

Another good source of lycopene, red cabbage can help with stroke prevention and improve brain function.

Sprouts

They may not look like much, but don't overlook them: Sprouts are an excellent support to gut health.

Medically Reviewed on 7/22/2022
References
SOURCES:

ACS Publications: "Comparison of Isothiocyanate Metabolite Levels and Histone Deacetylase Activity in Human Subjects Consuming Broccoli Sprouts or Broccoli Supplement"

Antioxidants: "Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Bioactives and Its Role in Alleviating Oral Pathologies"

BetterHealth Channel: "Fruit and vegetables."

Cancer Prevention Research: "Garlic and onions: Their cancer prevention properties"

Cleveland Clinic: "Folate Benefits and 13 Folate-Rich Foods to Try," "The Health Benefits of Beets," "Reasons Why Carrots (of All Colors) Are Healthy For You."

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: "Add color to your diet for good nutrition," "Kale," "Legumes and Pulses," "Phytonutrients: Paint your plate with the colors of the rainbow," "Vegetables and Fruits."

Mayo Clinic: "Cauliflower: The new nutrition superstar," "Eat the rainbow for good health," "Get your fill of fall superfoods," "Popeye knew the power of spinach," "Superfoods: Why you should eat cruciferous vegetables"

Molecular Nutrition & Food Research: "Role of anthocyanin-enriched purple-fleshed sweet potato p40 in colorectal cancer prevention."

Nutrition Reviews: "Risks and benefits of consuming edible seaweeds."

Nutrients: "Edible Plant Sprouts: Health Benefits, Trends, and Opportunities for Novel Exploration."

South Asian Journal of Cancer: "Evaluation of protective effect of myricetin, a bioflavonoid in dimethyl benzanthracene-induced breast cancer in female Wistar rats"

University of Utah: "Carrots and Eye Health: Myth or Fact?"