The façade of a healthy salad:
Salads are quite the food many people turn to when they seek to lose weight or to get thinner and fitter. Made up of raw and nourishing vegetables, salads are the best option to stay fit and provide your body with the best of nutrition. It can also prove to be a complete food for obese people who are on a recommended diet of limited carbohydrates and plenty of protein.
Having said that, sometimes, instead of being nourishing, salads can be quite unhealthy too. There are plenty of reasons why this can take place. Some of the very common reasons are listed below. You can have a look and find out what mistakes you are making in preparing your salad which may be the cause of it turning unhealthy.
Reasons why a healthy salad may turn unhealthy:
There are a few hidden reasons why this can happen. The generic salad recipe may be beneficial for most of us, and also provides just the amount of nourishment needed. But, the customised salad recipe varies from person to person in some people who are facing certain kinds of internal physical disorders. They have to be careful of what to include and exclude in their diet, and their salads too need to follow the same pattern.
- Too much low-quality protein:
Protein needs to be taken in per gram of every kilo body weight. This is the necessity of protein requirement which has to be fulfilled daily. But taking in too much of low quality protein through your salads may do you more harm than good. Non- veg salad is a good source of protein, but you have to ensure that it is not adulterated with pesticides and other synthetic and chemical equivalents, as these may hamper the quality of protein to a considerable extent.
- An unbalanced ratio of healthy and unhealthy fats:
Given our eating habits, omega 3 fats are already low in our bodies. We can only avail them from non-veg sources like salmon and they do not make up a considerable portion of our diet. In addition to that, we consume plenty of processed foods which are high on omega 6 fats. The amount of unhealthy fats in our body keeps on increasing whereas that of healthy fats continues to decrease. In order to address this, your salad should contain more of omega 3 fats, and not omega 6. Avoid vegetable oils and refined oils or generically processed corn in your salad lest you want to increase your omega 6 intake and disturb your body’s balance of fats further.
- Salad dressing:
Using the proper salad dressing is as important as the salad itself. Most people are inclined towards commercial and fancy salad dressing options which are nowhere close to being healthy. Low-fat dressing also should not be an option; because when fat is cut down from a salad, it is usually replaced by sugars, which are again unhealthy. Instead, add enough healthy fat to your salad, so that you feel full for long. People tend to cut down on their food intake if the salad satiates them. The fat content in the salad here acts as a catalyst in losing weight the right way.
What can you do to ensure a healthy salad diet?
Make sure that your salad contains all the necessary ingredients that are recommended to you as per your current health condition. For a healthy individual, the salad must be loaded with the required amount of carbs, proteins and fats so that it complements the void left by your actual meal. You can even replace an entire meal, usually dinners, with an equally nourishing salad.
For people with some specific ailments like arthritis and cardiovascular disorders, it is important to exclude certain eatables from their salad too, like oils and excess fats. Keep your salad ingredients in check, and you will never have to face the consequences of consuming an unhealthy salad ever again.
