Health Benefits of Salad

Traditionally salads were known to be prepared of only raw vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage and onion which are cut into slices and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and lemon. They were either served as the smallest portion among the other food items in the meal plate or totally ignored.

Hey folks, if you have also been doing the same, it’s now time to change.

But, let me first tell you the importance of having salads which will definitely lead you to start having salads with your meals. You can also be very creative in making your salad colorful, tasty, crunchy, balanced, appealing to eat and obviously healthy.

Why salads?

· Starting your meals with a bowl of salad will help you attain weight loss. Not a joke, it’s true because salads are low in calories, high in fiber and rich in other nutrients. Fiber helps you feel full making you eat, the remaining meal less and ultimately lose weight.

· Eating a high fiber salads aids in lowering cholesterol and also is known to prevent constipation.

• Eating a little good fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables in salads appears to help your body absorb protective phyto-chemicals  (known to protect against cancer and heart disease), like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables.
• Best way to skip croutons (deep fried pieces of wheat bread) which are few in nutrients and have a high glycemic load is to replace them by nuts and seeds and maintain the crunchiness in the salad.
• Want to balance it with proper carbohydrates and protein to make it a whole meal; you can add brown rice or protein packed Quinoe, grilled chicken, low fat Paneer, Tofu or Sprouts.

· People, who do not like to eat fruits, can relish on salads which combine fruits and vegetables and eat it as a whole meal or in between snacks. This will provide them a host of powerful antioxidants which will protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.