Plenty of water is also very important for producing healthy, tasty, good-quality lettuce. If you like the bitter taste you can find more bitter lettuce options, too! Lettuce gone bitter doesn't mean you have to throw it in the compost bin. Butter lettuce is a variety of butterhead lettuce, known for its smooth, loosely bunched, tender leaves. Partial shade, especially during the warmest parts of the day, safeguards your lettuce crops and helps them from taking on a bitter flavor. The type of lettuce you choose to grow also plays a part in the resistance to bitter flavors. As an antioxidant, vitamin A helps your body protect itself from damage from environmental toxins as well as free radicals. If you notice a bitter flavor in recently harvested lettuce, the University of Illinois Extension recommends placing it in the refrigerator at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 96 percent humidity for two days. The Causes of Bitter Lettuce Sap. Plenty of water is also very important for producing healthy, tasty, good-quality lettuce. Its leaves are an excellent source of phenolic flavonoid antioxidants such as zeaxanthin, and lutein. The material appearing on LIVESTRONG.COM is for educational use only. It is rich in fiber … If you eat an entire large head of iceberg lettuce, you will consume only about 100 calories, yet the fiber will give you a feeling of fullness for an … It is among the best foods for weight loss. diagnosis or treatment. Lettuce opium has been used as a topical antiseptic, as folk medicine to ameliorate a variety of conditions, and as a narcotic substitute or enhancer. Within weeks, the head lettuce was ready to be thinned and the loose leaf varieties were ready for their first gentle harvesting. Some varieties of lettuce are more heat-tolerant and resistant to bolting, which causes bitterness, while others are more susceptible. Which means we’re really getting our money’s worth because we’re not wasting food. A 1-cup serving of cut butter lettuce contains 91 micrograms of vitamin A per serving. Young, tender leaves have the best flavor. They have a bit of crunch and good … Zeaxanthin is a xanthophyll category of flavonoid carotenoid (yellow pigment) which concentrates … Although flushing your system is not vital to grow tasty lettuce, it can help improve flavor and remove the bitter taste. University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, University of Illinois Extension: Watch Your Garden Grow - Lettuce, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture: Home Gardening Series - Lettuce. Overview Information Wild lettuce is a plant. The leaves, sap (latex), and seed are used to make medicine. Anybody have any suggestions for what to do with the very bitter baby Romaine lettuce I recently got from my CSA? To maximize benefits from your food you should really WANT to eat it with your whole body--not just your mind saying it is good for you. Wild Lettuce commonly refers to the bitter cousin of common garden lettuce is a biennial herb that belongs to the lactuca genus and the sunflower family. But there are other reasons lettuce gets bitter including maturity, bolting, and poor growing conditions. A 1-cup serving of chopped butter lettuce contains 33 milligrams of phosphorus per serving. Among the Best Foods for Weight Loss. The way you store your lettuce once you harvest it from your garden also plays a big part in keeping bitter flavors away. Lettuce contains zeaxanthin, an antioxidant that boosts vision health. As butter lettuces are frequently quite small, you may decide to use the entire head for a meal-sized salad. Although this type of lettuce gets a bad rap for being all water, no substance, it actually contains a significant amount of vitamins A and K.