question about rotating greens...

[azalea]

When rotating greens, do you rotate the greens themselves (eg, switch from kale to collards, etc) or do you switch families (eg. kale to spinach, etc). If it's better to be switching families of greens, can someone list for me the different families of greens.

Thanks a bunch! :)

[rawstrength]

I just try to eat what's in season . . . nature provides a beautiful variety.


In a more direct answer to your question, different families have different overall qualities, but different individual plants within a family can have different alkaloids (the poison/medicines that become harmful when eaten over time). So there is value to both switching families and just switching between different greens.

[piccolittle]

How often should we switch up our greens, and how much? I usually have a green smoothie with spinach once a day (a LOT of spinach), and then I'll have a kale salad or mixed greens salad at night. Is this harmful? Should I have a different type of greens every day?

[rawstrength]

The usual rule in herbalism for using plants that can become toxic taken over the long term is use it for 2 days, take one day off, use it for 2 weeks, take one week off, use it for two months, take one month off.

So you can either rotate on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule. The goal is to avoid using the same plant everyday, all the time. But I think you could have a little more lee-way with supermarket variety greens, which aren't as strong as true herbs.