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Jun
20
5 Tips For A Healthy Salad Bar
Filed Under Eating Healthy, Nutrition
For some strange reason, people assume that vegetarian means eating a lot of salads. It’s not true folks, there are plenty of good non meat dishes that don’t involve meat. However, I’m quite often asked about salads as soon as I tell people that I don’t usually eat meat. Well, ok, I give up! Yes, I do occasionally eat salads, and when I do, I’m still pretty careful to make sure that they’re healthy. So follow along for a quick five tips on what to do at the salad bar.
Salad = Vegetables
The first and most common sense tip is to focus on vegetables. You wouldn’t think this would be a necessary tip until you see some of the salads people get. Tuna salad which is mostly pasta and tune with maybe a cherry tomato. Potato salad that’s mostly potatoes and mayo. Chicken salad which is mostly chicken, lettuce and dressing. Taco salad which is mostly chips, beans, salsa, sour cream and that ever present lettuce. These things are not healthy folks, even if they do include the word salad in their name.
You want salad? It better be 90% or more fresh vegetables!
Go For Color
An easy way to make sure you have a good load of nutrients is to pick vegetables with different colors. Sounds silly but it works. Go for plenty of green with things like spinach and broccoli. Add some reds with tomatoes and peppers. Now toss in the yellows with zucchinis or bell peppers, mix in some orange carrots and top it off with a bit of white, gray and brown mushrooms.
Easy On The Toppings
Grabbing a healthy salad and then adding half a chicken to it is not healthy. Want to add some protein? That’s great, but in moderation. A little blue cheese, some hardboiled egg, maybe even a chicken strip or two. Maybe try some kidney or garbanzo beans.
Ditch The Dressing
A good salad doesn’t need dressing. It tastes fine just the way it is.
Fruits Are Not Vegetables
Yep, there’s no doubt that fruit are good for you. However, they also contain many more calories than vegetables. So feel free to munch on some apples, oranges and other fruit, but filling your whole bowl with them might be a mistake (unless of course you were about to fill your whole bowl with a Philly cheese steak, in which case fruit are definitely a healthier alternative.)
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Salad does not necessarily mean healthy. Many fast food places will lure you in with salads that have more calories than your average big mac.
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4 Responses to “5 Tips For A Healthy Salad Bar”
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I quite like dressings on my salad. Do you think low fat or fat free dressings are ok?
That depends. Some low fat or fat free dressings still have a ton of calories in them. Check them out at the supermarket before using them at a restaurant, you might be surprised at the content.
By the way, one little trick I found is to eat my salad with my food instead of as a sidedish. Essentially, replace your mashed potatoes or whatever it is you’re eating with a salad and then mix it up with your main dish. It makes everything taste better and eliminates the need for dressing.
Gal
I took a “Garde Manger” class last term in culinary school and the “garde manger” station in the food biz is basically the “cold kitchen” salads, cold cuts, sandwiches, pates, cut up fruits and veggies etc. We had a whole week JUST about salads! Although i am a very healthy eater and love my veggies, i am not a big salad eater, but this class helped me appreciate them. A good dressing is simply the one you can easily make on you own, and if you use good quality veggies in your salads, i think you wont even need much dressing if at all. Start with a good oil like extra virgin olive oil or toasted sesame oil (but measure a teaspoon at a time becuase the calories can add up), and them emulisfy with some dijon musard and a nice vinegar like balsamic/ red wine/ or my personal favorite rice wine. season with a little salt and pepper and youve got a great tasting dressing!
Good post. I like salads as well because they are so healthy. However some people load there salads with calories because they use the wrong dressings. I read a reveiw on iateapie.com yesterday that was reviewing a Taco Bill salad that had 800 calories! Unbelievable! Keep the dressing low in calories!