What is the Healthiest Vegetable?

The healthiest prize for all vegetables goes to swiss chard. Chard is the 'king' of all vegetables. It is also widely available, cheap and very easy to cook.

One cup of cooked chard is only 35 calories. But the wealth of nutrition you can get from this one cup is quite incredible.

Vitamin A
Typically we think of carrots when we think of foods high in Vitamin A. But one cup of cooked chard will give you 109 percent of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin A.

Vitamin C
Normally we think of citrus fruits to get our vitamin C quota. But one cup of chard will supply us with 52% of our daily needs for Vitamin C.

Dietary Fiber
Bran comes to mind when we think of meeting our daily dietary needs for fiber. But one cup of chard provides us with 15 percent of our daily needs for dietary fiber. That's about the same amount as in one heavy-duty bran muffin.

Potassium
Potassium is very important for the nerves. You'd have to eat two bananas (the highest concentrated fruit for potassium) to equal one cup of cooked chard and get 27 percent of your daily requirement for potassium.

Vitamin E
Vitamin E is very important for a healthy sex drive and anti-aging benefits. Chard is one of the few vegetables with significant Vitamin E. It provides 16 percent of our daily requirement.

Calcium
We usually think of milk when we're concerned about getting adequate calcium. But swiss chard makes a good substitute. One cup of chard has about 35% of the calcium (and only one quarter of the calories) as one cup of 2% milk.

To see more about the outstanding health benefits of chard, check out the best source of non-profit nutritional information online; the WHFoods site. They provide an impressive wealth of information about the world's healthiest foods.

The photos shown here are by rappy and Mom the Barbarian at Flickr.

Chard is part of a group of vegetables known as 'greens'. Greens include chard, kale and collard greens and these three vegetables are almost equal in their tremendous health benefits.

Forget about counting calories and see more about how eating vegetables is a great way to lose weight by actually eating more food instead of less.

Chard is also really easy to cook. See a quick recipe here.

Ten High Fiber Foods

Eating foods that are high in dietary fiber is helpful for anyone wanting to pursue an optimal, healthy diet. But a high fiber diet is especially recommended for people who are obese.

Aside from helping to fight obesity, a high fiber diet can help anyone who suffers from constipation, hemorrhoids, high blood sugar or high cholesterol levels.

Recommended fiber intake is 25-35 grams a day. The majority of us eat less than half of the recommended fiber daily. A cup of fresh raspberries is 8.3 grams of fiber and a bran muffin is between three and five grams of fiber.

Here are ten foods that are unusually high in fiber as well as being amongst the world's healthiest of foods, given their high nutrition value. 'DV' stands for the daily recommended amount based on an average young female.

• Lentils, Boiled (1 cup) = 78.2% DV

• Split Peas, Boiled (1 cup) = 81.3% DV

• Raspberries, Fresh (1 cup) = 41.7% DV

• Squash, All Winter Varieties (1 cup) = 28.7% DV

• Avacado, All Varieties (1 cup) = 36.5% DV

• Rice, Long Grain Brown, Cooked (1 cup) = 17.6% DV

• Oats, Whole Grain (1 cup) = 19.9% DV

• Almonds (1/4 cup) = 21.0% DV

• Sweet Potato, Peeled after Baking (1 cup) = 30.0% DV

• Flax Seed (1/4 cup) = 54.0% DV

See the World's Healthiest Foods - Fiber Page for detailed info about the health benefits of fiber as well as the best list of fiber rich foods.

See how to make delicious lentil walnut burgers here.