A Salad a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: The Health Benefits of Green Salads
92Eating a green salad every day is one of the healthiest habits you can get into.
Green salads are bursting with vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables. Eating two cups of Romaine lettuce alone will give you a nice boost of vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, iron, calcium, folic acid, and many more important nutrients. Add in some carrots, tomatoes, and olive oil-based dressing and you can forget about your multivitamin pills! Raw vegetables and fruits are also bursting with antioxidants, which protect against many types of cancer and other diseases.
Green salads are also high in dietary fiber. Those same two cups of romaine lettuce will give you about 10% of your daily allotment of fiber. Fiber not only improves digestive health, it also helps protect the body against heart disease and many types of cancer. Not only that, eating a diet high in fiber will help you lose weight. Many foods high in fiber are "bulky" but relatively low calorie, so you will fill up faster, eat less food, and consume fewer calories in the food you do eat.
If your goal is weight loss, eating a large green salad before your meal is an especially good way to fill up on healthy but low calorie vegetables and fruits, so you eat less of your higher calorie entree. Just leave off the high fat dressings and bacon bits, or replace them with heart healthier vinaigrettes and walnuts, which are rich in essential Omega-3 fatty acids.
Salad Cookbooks
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Twelve Months of Monastery Salads: 200 Divine Recipes for All Seasons
Price: $10.95
List Price: $14.95 |
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Simply Salads: More than 100 Delicious Creative Recipes Made from Prepackaged Greens and a Few Easy-to-Find Ingredients
Price: $9.99
List Price: $24.99 |
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Raising the Salad Bar: Beyond Leafy Greens--Inventive Salads with Beans, Whole Grains, Pasta, Chicken, and More
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List Price: $19.95 |
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Salad Makes the Meal: 150 Simple and Inspired Salad Recipes Everyone Will Love
Price: $7.70
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My Favorite Dressings
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Newman's Own Salad Dressing, Olive Oil & Vinegar, 16-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6)
Price: $22.74
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Newman's Own Salad Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette, 16-Ounce Bottles (Pack of 6)
Price: $26.95
List Price: $22.74 |
The Perfect Salad
As you've probably guessed, a wimpy little salad with iceberg lettuce and a single anemic tomato slice is not going to cut it. If iceberg lettuce is what you're used to, I'm not asking you to immediately start cracking out the arugula. I'm not a big fan of arugula myself. But do start mixing basic iceberg lettuce with more nutritious leaf lettuces, especially Romaine.
Even if you're an experienced salad eater, consider experimenting with alternative toppings. Carrots and tomatoes make a great start, but have you considered the following (not all in the same salad!):
spinach, arugula, watercress, sprouts, parsley, cilantro, red cabbage, radish, beet, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, zucchini, green peppers, red peppers, red onion, shallot, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, artichoke hearts, green beans, peas, chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, button mushrooms, baby bella mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, black olives, kalamata olives, avocados, walnuts, cashews, almonds, apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, mandarin oranges, blood oranges, pineapples, currants, raisins, dried cranberries, pine nuts
In addition to bacon bits (real bacon, not fake!), other healthy(ish) toppings for carnivores include grilled chicken or fish (tuna and salmon are especially good) and grilled sirloin strips. Hardboiled eggs are excellent choices, and one of the tastiest salads I've ever eaten starred thinly sliced grilled duck with walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette. Greeks do fabulous things with a light crumbling of feta cheese.
The healthiest salad dressings are the vinaigrettes, which are mixes of oil (preferably olive or canola oil), vinegar, and spices or other flavorings. Vinaigrette dressings are actually quite easy to mix yourself, but you can buy good ones in stores as well. My favorite brand is Newman's Own.
Salad Tools
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Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner
Price: $21.00
List Price: $33.50 |
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Lipper International 12-Inch Cherry Salad Bowl
Price: $22.49
List Price: $34.99 |
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Anchor Hocking Olivia 3-Piece Salad Bowl Set with Serving Fork and Spoon
Price: $12.09
List Price: $14.99 |
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Pomerantz Cherry 7-Piece Salad Set
Price: $75.00
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wooden set of 5 serving salad BOWLS / OLIVE WOOD bowl
Current Bid: $39.99
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Vintage Primitive Small Wooden Bowls Salad Wood
Current Bid: $3.99
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Antique Wooden Salad Bowl Set 7 Piece
Current Bid: $124.99
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OLD DECORATIVE WOODEN SALAD BOWL W/LABEL/BOWLS
Current Bid: $6.50
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SEVEN WOODEN SALAD BOWLS
Current Bid: $9.99
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Salad Recipes on HubPages
- A Salad a Day Keeps the Doctor Away: The Health Benefits of Green Salads
Eating a green salad every day is one of the healthiest habits you can get into. Green salads are bursting with vitamins and minerals from fruits and vegetables. Eating two cups of Romaine lettuce... - 5 months ago
- Beans & Greens - Super Simple Salad Recipes
With these simple recipes, only five or fewer ingredients each, eat a new salad every night, without making endless trips to the grocery store or market! Grocery list and Weight Watchers point count... - 2 years ago
- Chilled Pea Salad Recipe
Looking for an excellent, easy recipe that you can take to a picnic, or mix up quickly on a weekday evening? Your search is over! This chilled pea salad recipe is quick, fresh and inexpensive.... - 18 months ago
- German Potato Salad Recipe
This is an authentic, easy recipe for German Potato Salad. The ingredients are very basic, but make sure you make the salad the day before you plan on serving it. - 2 years ago
- Beet, apple and walnut salad in a tart vinnaigrette.
Too many people say they don’t like beets… and if you are one of these people, I have to tell you that you're wrong. You actually do like beets; you just haven't had them... - 2 years ago
- The Best Caesar Salad
I love a nice fresh salad. I especially love a good Caesar Salad. Here is the recipe to one of the best ones I have had. Enjoy. INGREDIENTS: 1 head of romaine lettuce 1/2 bunch arugula 3 slices... - 2 years ago
- BBQ Side Dish Salad - Greek Style Roasted Beet Salad. A Very Easy Recipe!
Greek style beet salad uses roasted beets for a perfect BBQ side dish salad. So easy and very very good. - 6 months ago
- Harvest tomato and good stale bread salad. Perfect summer eating
Stale bread and ripe tomato salad. As good as it gets. Man I love this salad, and when the tomatoes are fat and heavy on the vine, I almost want that loaf of bread to get stale just so I can... - 2 years ago
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Comments
Thanks for all the salad additions. I am a salad nut, must have salad every dinner. And dispite this practice, salad always makes a meal feel special.
Great ideas. I was raised in a family that had a salad at every dinner it was and still is my dad's speciality. He makes an elaborate salad each and every day.
Great hub! Lately I've been topping salad with thin sliced steak (I use leftovers), corn, peppers and basil balsamic vinaigrette dressing...it's a whole meal!
another great lens with informative content, thanks














GA-PEACHES says:
5 months ago
Thanks for the tips on different toppings to go on my lunch. I have been needing to try something better for me and this sounds great.