Vine Leaf
Food · Vegetable · Food, Typed Supps
A dark leafy green, packed in enough salt to change the answer entirely.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Salt tasted immediately): The brine is the first thing noticed; rinsing or soaking before use is the only meaningful lever on the sodium.
- Gut transit (Fibre passes intact): 9.9g of fibre per 100g against 1.8g of available carbohydrate makes the leaf close to energy-free bulk.
- Absorption (Carotenoids need fat): Beta-carotene converts to vitamin A but is poorly absorbed without a lipid in the meal — the olive oil in a dolmade is doing real work.
- Circulation and kidneys (Sodium load): 2853mg sodium per 100g, with potassium leached out to 29mg, inverts the ratio a fresh leafy green would normally supply.
Time to effect
- Weeks: Sodium's effect on blood pressure reflects habitual intake across weeks; a single serve does nothing measurable.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Keto, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
292 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — very high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
0.5 kg CO2e and 108 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other vegetables" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 61
- Protein: 4.3g
- Carbohydrate: 1.8g
- of which sugars: 1.8g
- Fat: 2g
- of which saturated: 0.4g
- Fibre: 9.9g
- Sodium: 2853mg
Food vs. supplement
As a vitamin A source the leaf gives 473mcg RAE per 100g as beta-carotene, which the body converts only as much as it needs — a self-limiting route that pre-formed retinol supplements do not offer. The catch is the delivery vehicle: nobody should be eating vine leaves for their vitamin A given what comes with them.
Kitchen tip
Soak them, do not just rinse them. Twenty minutes in a bowl of water changed two or three times pulls out considerably more salt than a pass under the tap, because the sodium is inside the leaf rather than on it. Then dress with olive oil, which the beta-carotene needs in order to be absorbed.
Common myth
“Vine leaves are a leafy green, so they count as a vegetable serve.” In reality: The leaf does; the canned product carries 2853mg of sodium per 100g and almost no potassium, which is the opposite of what a vegetable serve is meant to contribute.
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