Salad is Perfect Diet Food - Right?
By Dorrie Ruplinger - 2006-11-15
Many people think that if they are having a salad for lunch or dinner, or even breakfast - that they are having a healthy meal. And yes, a salad can be a very healthy food choice. It can also be just as bad of a food choice as a fast food burger and fries.
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Salad or a Tossed Meal?
Does the salad dressing you're using have a lot of calories in it, and are you using so much of it on your salad that you have the caloric equivalent of a McDonald's burger on your salad in dressing alone?
Many people think that if they are having a salad for lunch or dinner, or even breakfast - that they are having a healthy meal. And yes, a salad can be a very healthy food choice. It can also be just as bad of a food choice as a fast food burger and fries depending on what is put on that salad.
Here's an example of a salad a friend of mine who was dieting recently made for herself when we were having lunch at a restaurant with a salad bar. I watched her make a huge salad and this is what it contained:
Iceberg lettuce
Shredded carrots
Tomatoes
Hard boiled egg
Diced ham
Diced turkey
Diced salami
Bacon bits
Shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Croutons
Regular ranch dressing - lots of it.
On the side of the salad but on the same plate she piled servings of potato salad, pasta salad, and cottage cheese.
I think I remembered all the ingredients. I may have forgotten one two, but I'm pretty close to having them all. I remembered her salad because she talked about her diet a lot during lunch and was so proud of herself for not ordering the hamburger she really wanted and instead having the salad. When I pointed out that the hamburger would have been less calories, she laughed at me. I think she thought I was joking but I wasn't.
My friend did not have a salad. By the time she finished making her salad it was hard to see the lettuce. She had a tossed meal. And she had several high fat items in that salad like the processed deli meats, the cheddar cheese, and the bacon bits.
On the other hand, a salad can be a very healthful choice. Some good choices are:
Dark leafy greens although iceberg is okay too.
Raw vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, green pepper (or any other color pepper), celery, radishes, and onions.
A low fat or vinaigrette dressing (raspberry vinaigrette has big flavor without having a lot of calories).
See our Color Wheel of Fruits and Vegetables
A salad can be whatever you want it to be.
But a salad piled high with high calorie and high fat foods in a not the perfect diet food. In fact, what it might be is the perfect diet wrecking food because it fools people into thinking they are eating a low calorie meal when they aren't.
"Salad is Perfect Diet Food - Right?"
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