Traditionally, salads are prepared with raw vegetables like cucumber, tomatoes, cabbage and onions, which are cut into slices and sprinkled with a pinch of salt and lemon. They were either served as the smallest portion of the meal or totally ignored. If you’ve been doing the same, it’s time to change! Adding a bowl of salad to your meals is important, and that’s what we’re going to tell you in this article.
Why Should You Eat A Bowl Of Salad Daily?
- Firstly, starting your meals with a bowl of salad will help you lose weight. It’s true because salads are low in calories, high in fiber and rich in other nutrients. Fiber helps you feel full, so you eat less of the rest of your meal. Eating less but healthy = sustainable weight loss! Eating a high fiber salad aids in lowering cholesterol and also is known to prevent constipation.
- Eating a little healthy fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables in salads helps your body absorb protective phytochemicals (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 low in nutrients and have a high glycemic load, is to replace them with nuts and seeds to maintain the salad’s crunchiness.
- To balance it with proper carbohydrates and proteins to make it a whole meal, you can add brown rice or protein packed Quinoa, Grilled Chicken, low fat Paneer (Cottage Cheese), Tofu or Sprouts.
- People, who do not like to eat fruits, can relish salads which combine fruits and vegetables and eat it as a whole meal or as a snack. This provides a host of powerful antioxidants, which protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.
Tips To Prepare Healthy Salads
- Salads are known to be rich in Vitamins. Fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K cannot be absorbed and used by the body without the presence of some fat. So go for the unsaturated fats (good fats) like olive oil or canola oil. Toss the oil with vinegar to help to prevent blood sugar spikes after meals.
- The best way to include greens like romaine, radicchio, iceberg and spinach in your daily diet is to mix them all up or use one at a time in salads.
- Add medicinal herbs like basil, garlic, lemon juice or parsley to the salad for that strong punch of flavor and loads of disease fighting antioxidants. The more flavorful your salad is naturally, the fewer high calorie ingredients like extra cheese and cream you’ll need to add for taste.
- Pack your salads with as many other veggies or fruits as possible to get the synergetic effects. Carrots, cucumbers, different colored peppers, broccoli, peas, artichokes, strawberries, raspberries, or pears are great choices to add different textures as well as plenty of filling fiber.
We hope this article encourages you to make a habit of adding a bowl of salad to your meals! Get creative with your salad, make it colorful or crunchy and share a pic on social media or the GOQii Arena and tag us! For more on healthy living and nutrition, check out Healthy Reads.
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Eat Healthy and #BeTheForce
Thanks for enlightening us on the importance of eating salads. Please tell us how to de-toxify the vegetables that we are buying from different sources.
I really like fresh salad so much, and salad make us healthiest and life long. So can you tell me some important aspects when we eat often? And what can we eat for two or three times per week?
Hey !! I really appreciate that you like salads and think they are healthy. If you are looking for weight loss, start your meals with a big bowl of salads. Veggies are high on fiber, vitamins, minerals and low on calories which give you early satiety. This is not make you binge of other unhealthy stuff.
Regarding how frequently you should eat, if your salads are off those unhealthy sauces, GO AHEAD and grab them everyday.
I’m anemic and have IBS mostly c type.
I don’t take iron supplements and due to working I have been mostly vegan until recently.
I was eating a lot of fried and deep fried vegan foods, but have recently been eating a very large salad of mixed romaine and spinach, with shredded carrot, red onion, cucumber, black olives, tomatoes, feta cheese and a dressing made from honey, cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and thyme.
Is this a good mix for somebody in my position? I’ve only started doing this for the past week so am not noticing any difference yet.
Hi Trishan
The combination of all the veggies looks good but make sure that you don’t eat them raw. Go for stir fried. You can also add curd as a probiotic to get more relief.
Why not eat them raw?
Experience confirms that salads should be part of meal for good health.
Very useful information. I eat Salad with lunch and dinner-cucumber, tomato, spinach and onion.
Thanks Jaswinder.Glad to know you are having salads daily. Keep it up!
I have a big bowl of green salad each day…very simple consisting of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, sweet peppers, sometimes the purple onions. My skin overall is noticeably smooth and clean, I feel light and full of energy. I am close to 40, 140lbs and 5’6″…and health conscious as i grow older..but I will recommend salads for everyone. On some days, i would steam or bake fish and eat with my salad and make a nice dressing to go with….its so simple, tasty and healthy too….Good luck everyone!!!
WOW! That’s amazing and you are an inspiration for all. Good going
I think a good habit to get into is cutting out the other junk and get back to yhe basic. . a nice salad with a little cheese to start and grilled meat.. Pork, chicken, steaks, .. Thats a good plan.
True!
Thanks for the information about the benefits of salads. Is it advisable to include meat in our salads?
Hi Paul
You can definitely add ingredients like low fat paneer, grilled/steamed/boiled chicken or fish pieces.
Hi
You can mix up variety of green leafy veggies
It is nice i will be eating salad now to live longer
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Hi,
Useful information but i got a question, the amount of calories in a regular salad bowl which consists of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, , sweet peppers, onions, olives,carrot has around 450 calories whereas a medium sized cups of rice , 3 curries, Dal too contain around 475 calories. How is salad beneficial in weight reduction as we consume same amount of calories be it salad or meal.
Thanks
Hi Krishna
Good question! Even though the calorie content may be same but the nutrients which contribute to this calories are different. We get more of fiber, vitamins and minerals from Salads and less of carbohydrates as compared to the dal, rice and curries.
Thank you for this article , but i have a problem , i dnt like oil with salad , i like eat vegtebales with lemon zest and vinegar , this means i never benefited from the vitamins ? This really made me sad . I need to know if i must add oil then i will , aftr all i really want to benefit and lose weight i am working so hard with my meals and my eating
Recently I started gaining good amount of weight, even I am hardcore gym lover. Now it’s been a month I started taking salad seriously & I would say thing are changing slowly but for good. Everyone should have salads almost of half of their other meals. Most important its very easy to cook. 🙂
I think including salads and fruits in diet on a regular basis has lots of advantages. It not only prevents constipation, assist in weight loss but also helps stave off major health illness like BP,diabetes for as long as possible. Also coloured fruits and vegetables are responsible for adding various pigments to our body which prevents skin damage from sun and pollution.a
Hi ,please can you please write a blog for thyroid diet to loose weight
Nice Article…
Rare blog post, This information would be helpful to all.
I want some knowledge about importance of salad in human diet in detail please provide..??
I am 59 years old with good health – overweight by 15 kilos – I weigh 95 kgs for a height of 6 feet.
I have started raw vegetable salad for lunch in order to loose weight. I take tomato, cucumber, carrot and onion for my salad.
Please advise if I should have the salad for lunch or for dinner – I do not do much physical activity after dinner, and sleep for about 6 hours.
It will be helpful if you can send your response to my email address s_khandelia@hotmail.com
i do agree… salad should be included in our meal… well written article..
iI really like your replies concerning health benefits of salad. I love salads but the best way I found they work for me is to wilt greens with hot olive oil and garlic. This way I can handle eating different things in my salad that doesnt cause as much gas. Your input would definitely be appreciated,
Thank you
Sheri
I am a christian and I believe trying to eat healthy is part of Gods plan for mankind!
Great information about salads. Thanks.
Just as a part of eagerness, wanted to know that- Are you the same who was in St. Joseph’s ? Jayati’s di?
Hi there! Can you tell me how to use lemon in salad.
Right away I am ready to do my breakfast, afterward having my breakfast coming again to read more
news.
Hi Vrushali good day
Can one eat raw tomato, carrot, cucumber and onion for lunch along with 2-3 pulka is it good for health regards somasundaram
Consumption of raw vegetables in those with IBS can cause bloating and discomfort.
Nice blog. Thanks for the share. I believe salads are one of the best meal one can have. I love salads from gardenbar.in! They are just beautiful and mouth-watering at the same time.
thanks for the useful. it helps in chronic diseases such as fights cancer, heart diseases, and balance our glucose level.
Thanks for sharing a very informative blog.