When was the last time you ate a fresh, satisfying and slenderizing salad?
Eating a salad every day may be one of the simplest and most healthy eating habits you can begin to cultivate today.
Four Action-Packed Reasons to Eat a Salad Every Day – Starting Today:
Salads are cool, crunchy, and fun to eat. Adding in lots of textures, colors, and flavors to your meal help to enliven the senses and nourish our spirit. Eating a salad every day can be a fun and convenient way to work in a few extra servings of fruits and veggies.
You can find a green salad in almost every restaurant. You can even purchase pre-made salads in the produce aisle of most grocery stores. You can make a tasty green salad at home quickly and easily, with a bag of pre-washed organic salad greens, or grow your own, a variety of your favorite veggies, and a simple homemade dressing.
1. The Power of Fiber: It can be challenging to get the recommended 25-30 grams of fiber per day. Eating a high-fiber diet can help lower cholesterol levels prevent constipation. Adding more fiber into your diet can also help you lose weight, and keep it under control. Fiber helps us feel fuller longer and stabilizes blood sugar, reducing food cravings and mood swings.
2. The Joy of Fruits & Veggies: There is plenty of evidence that nutrient-rich plant foods contribute to overall health and wellness. Most Americans do not eat enough variety of fruits and vegetables, especially legumes, dark green and orange vegetables and dark blue, red and purple fruits.
“If you frequently eat green salads, you’ll likely have higher blood levels of a host of powerful antioxidants (vitamin C and E, folic acid, lycopene, and alpha- and beta-carotene,) especially if your salad includes some raw vegetables. Antioxidants are substances that help protect the body from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.”
3. Get Slim and Satisfied: Beginning your meal with a fresh, green salad can help you reach your weight-loss goals, by enhancing satiety and reducing the total number of calories eaten during the meal. The bigger the better, research shows. More veggies, less dressing helped people reduce their total number of calories consumed per meal by an average of 50.
Aim for 1 1/2 cups to 3 cups in volume, with a variety of greens and colorful veggies and a drizzle of home-made, healthy fat dressing to help you maintain healthy weight-loss.
4. Absorb More, Live Longer with Healthy Fats: Adding a little good fat like olive oil, flax oil, avocado or nuts to your salads appears to boost your body’s absorption of protective phytochemicals, such as lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables. Phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have protective and disease preventing qualities. Most phytochemicals have antioxidant activity and protect our cells against oxidative damage and reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer.
A recent Ohio State University study tested how well phytochemicals were absorbed by the body after 2 groups of people ate a salad of lettuce, carrot, and spinach, with or without 2 1/2 tablespoons of avocado. Those who added avocado absorbed eight times more alpha-carotene and more than 13 times more beta-carotene than those who ate salads without avocado. Alpha-carotene and beta-carotene are believed to help protect against cancer and heart disease.
Also, Italian research on people 60 and older suggests that a diet that includes healthy doses of olive oil and raw vegetables is linked to reduced mortality. So if you dress your salad with a little olive oil every day, you may be adding more vibrant, energetic, healthy years to your life!