Healthy Salads

Healthy salads provide the necessary vitamins and minerals in our diet for good health. Salads are great because the ingredients you use are only limited by your imagination. We could even add some of the fatty foods that some folk love to demonize such as cheese.

• Let’s discuss the nutritional benefits of healthy salads:
• Boost your immune system. Hey no more winter colds.
• Strengthen your bones. This is especially important for women reaching or who have passed the fifty mark. Our bones require special consideration now to keep osteoporosis away.
• What about cleansing your skin. Much cheaper than buying expensive cosmetics.
• Improves your circulation. Do any of us need to have the benefits of a superior working circulatory system explained to us!
• Last but not least eating salads keeps you slim. In the western societies that is important for both children and adults.

The leafy green part of salads provides us with folate. In fact, generally the greener the leaf the more folate in it. Folate could be considered almost a wonderworker. It reputably aids in combating certain cancers and works to combat the effects of excessive alcohol intake.

Salad greens can easily be grown in the garden or on a window ledge. Greens that have lots of the best things like folate in them are watercress, spinach and rocket. Hmm not fussed on them! Then realize these are acquired tastes – even for children. It’s a bit like rowing a boat. Just start paddling and keep going then after a while the pain turns to pleasure.

Acquiring a taste for the foods that fast track your good health is worth the effort. Not only so you can continue your comfortable lifestyle but good health saves spending money at the doctors.

So you want to eat some of those foods that every nutritionist from all corners of the earth seems to be down on nowadays. You know the ones such as sugars, fats and white flour. Then go ahead. Now that you have included healthy salads into your daily diet you can afford to splurge! But do it in moderation.

Balance in our diet will achieve good health and by this I mean eating some of what takes your fancy now and then. There is no need to be a food nazi about the so called “baddies”.

Salads for children need to be presented creatively to pique the interest. Lots of color and funny faces make it more fun and more palatable for children.

Healthy lunch ideas ideally include a salad. If you are like most of us and pushed for time then the ideal solution is to pack your salad the night before. Modern packaging prevents nutritional loss as we know. Oh sure the salad may not be quite as crunchy but it is better than the alternatives. That is buying something for lunch at the last moment like a Mars bar with your latte!

Salads don’t need to be confined to lunches. They make the best healthy dinners especially in the summer months.

Create salads from whatever is in season to save on costs. If tomatoes are too costly at this time of year then use something else. Make the green part as the base to provide the folate and then build from that. Throw in a couple of olives. We all know about the Italians and the Greeks and how their diet of olive oil protects them from heart disease. What is more, ladies look at their beautiful skin to see obvious benefits.

There you go this is just an intro to healthy salads. However if you are smart enough to realize the importance of salads then you are half way there. Well done.

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Healthy salads are a great way to lose weight and increase your body’s immune system.  However, many people make the mistake of turning their healthy salads into something that may actually be bad for their health.  Here are a few tips that will ensure you will be making healthy snack recipes good for your body and mind.

The first tip is to turn those healthy salads into healthy dinners by mixing protein rich ingredients in your mix, this balances the carbs in your meal and can help you feel full and stave hunger off for hours.  Protein rich food you can add to your salad includes left over chicken, salmon, shrimp or lean steak.

Another option to try is adding a can of beans like garbanzo or black beans.  Dicing smoked or baked tofu can do wonders for your protein requirements and help you make really healthy dinners.

Adding cooked green soybeans is a likewise healthy addition to your already healthy salads. If you prefer some dairy with your salad, you can toss in diced, reduced fat cheese.  Examples include fresh mozzarella or soy-based cheeses.

When you are applying dressing on your healthy salads you can boost your smart-fat quotient by using canola or olive oil in your mix.  Canola oil is a healthy option because it is filled with monounsaturated fats that are good for the heart and lots of heart boosting omega-3 fatty acids.  Olive oil has been known for centuries to be one of the healthiest cooking oils known to man.  Its efficacy in preventing heart disease is well known and documented. Another healthy option for your salad dressing is utilizing fat-free sour cream; fruit juice or plain yogurt.  Eliminate any sugar called for in the recipe, use instead light corn syrup or honey.  Champagne, non-alcoholic beer, wine and low sodium chicken broth are excellent options for your quick healthy recipes.

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Eating healthy salads is a sure fire way to jumpstart your way to the path of healthy eating enlightenment.  What better way to treat your body and get rid of disease causing toxins than eating nice fresh healthy salads?

These quick healthy recipes are contrary to popular belief, very easy to prepare and enjoy.  In making your own version of healthy lunch ideas like the salad, you are only limited by your own imagination.  The key in making healthy salads is of course choosing the correct ingredients.

Green leafy vegetables are standard fare as these provide the essential vitamins and minerals as well as fiber to cleanse your colon of the processed junk that is put in there virtually everyday.

Throw in a few olives in the mix to provide yourself with protection from heart disease and skin that is youthful and smooth. A healthy modicum of cheese to provide you with calcium and healthy fats can make your salad yummier.

If you want to get the most out of eating healthy salads make sure that you avoid some of the traps that come with making them. More often than not, toppings are the culprits in making healthy salads not so healthy.  Don’t fall into the trap that just because you’re eating leafy greens, it is ok to fill your bowl with bacon or crouton toppings.  These are very high in saturated fat and may waste your efforts of trying to lose weight and eating healthy.  Also, try to avoid those rich thousand island dressings that are rich in fat and sugars from the mayo and catsup combination to prepare them.

Try some healthy olive oil or vinaigrette instead.  If you just cant resist putting a little salad dressing make sure to avoid directly putting them on the salad itself but instead put them on a side plate.  “On the side” ensures that you will be able to monitor the ingredients you put in your healthy salads.

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We will work on the premise in this discussion that persons looking for healthy salads will also be interested in good health and well being. It was way back in 1826 that it was written ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are’.

Certainly they were on the right track there but that is not the whole story. What we eat is only part of the story that leads us to good health. Our over all lifestyle is going to dictate the terms of our good health or otherwise. If one leads a sedentary lifestyle and drinks excessive alcohol and caffeine then eating healthy salads isn’t going to help much. It will be overshadowed by the effects of the rest of the lifestyle. Eating to live, not the other way around, plus adequate physical exercise are two important contributors to good health and longevity.

We live in a world where millions of people are on the move desperately trying to find food to feed themselves and their children. These people are simply attempting to stay alive. With this in mind surely it is time for us fortunate to be born in the lucky country to view food as a precious commodity.

It was back in the sixties when it became very fashionable and ’hip’ to adopt macrobiotic eating. However even one of the leading advocates of this lifestyle, eventually died of cancer. It occurs to me that if we are seeking good health and longevity then our approach need not be anything extreme. The most logical thing to do would be to make a study of those individuals who have achieved longevity and a quality of life along the way. You would discover that eating healthily was part of their lifestyle because in most instances there was not the money to do otherwise. Plain basic food was the staple diet. Often such things as watercress which we pay handsomely for to include in our salads nowadays was foraged for by the children sent out to find greens for the dinner by mum.

Salads don’t have to be pretentious in any form to be healthy and neither do they need to be expensive. Start the salad with a green base for the important folate. Does anyone grow watercress near your place?  If not let’s plant some greens in a pot or garden and have them on hand for salads. Adding protein to salads not only delivers a nutritious salad but can also be an economical meal suitable to eat as healthy dinners in the summer months.

For example inexpensive chick peas can be cooked and eaten cold in salads. Chick peas are a great idea for salads. They are so easy on the purse but they are full of goodness. They are an edible legume very high in protein. During the first world war they were ground and brewed as a coffee substitute. Chick peas as well as being full of protein are a source of zinc, folate, dietary fibre and carbohydrates. They are low in fat and most of this is polyunsaturated – the good fat.

Dried chickpeas need a long cooking time (1–2 hours)! If soaked for 12–24 hours before use, cooking time can be shortened by around 30 minutes. For the purists this is probably the way to go. For my mind canned chick peas at about one dollar per can does me.They are generally preserved with salt in the can so I always give them a good rinse before using. After tossing in chick peas with your greens, then look in the fridge for anything else that you might fancy with this. Hopefully you have a lemon tree in your garden because after the salad is prepared squeeze lemon juice over it for extra taste. Lemon trees are so useful for eating healthily. Even if the only available space is your front garden then a lemon tree is a sensible and attractive centerpiece. They will also grow well in large pots for any apartment dwellers.

A return to basic foods will serve our health well. It also allows for less time spent in the kitchen and more time with the family. Maybe even engaging in some form of physical activity together. A good part of the problem with poor health is our sedentary lifestyles today. Nothing complicated here so let’s get started!

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Balancing the budget and eating healthily can be a juggle at times. That’s why eating healthy salads is a simple solution. Naturally if you buy fruit and veges in season you will save money. Local markets are ideal if you can get to one. This is because the cost of cutting out the middle man is generally reflected in the price you pay. Besides don’t we somehow or other feel better about eating fresh.

Many of us have set ideas of what a salad is. However with very little imagination it is easy to create your own salads. Why not start just adding bits and pieces to make a salad. You know, cooked potatoes chopped through a salad adds so much nutritional benefit. A medium cooked potato with the skin on offers just as much fibre, more vitamin C, B6, folate, and iron as a cup of brown rice. Potatoes are also high in protein. Yet spuds have to be one of the most economical things on our shopping list.

There are times you could hardly call these concoctions anything as classy as a recipe – regardless they still taste good and are nutritious. It is always a good idea to start with some greens first and build from there. Think about the word foliage for greens. This will help you remember the association between foliage and all of that wonderful folate contained with them. Folate could be considered almost a wonderworker in our bodies and it reputably aids in combating certain cancers.

If you’re feeding a family then the cost of meat to feed everyone is getting pricey. Let’s look for some meat substitutes to toss into a salad for some healthy dinners. Avocados are the go. These can also be expensive items but when they are in season they are generally perfectly priced and can act as a meat substitute. Avocados are high in protein. Unbelievably one small avocado gives you more protein then if you had eaten a large steak. And there’s more! They also contain all the essential amino acids that our bodies need. These are fatty acids, including the essential omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. Avocados are not fattening and are okay for even the most diet conscious of us. The fat in avocados is in such small amounts you would have to eat many avocados before any noticeable effect on your weight. Like anything else just eat in moderation and allow the benefits to outweigh the myths surrounding this little gem. Now’s the time to dispel another myth. Avocados are not high in cholesterol. No plant food, including avocado, contains cholesterol.

Eating healthily often means we have to change our thinking about our food. Many of the foods we may previously have dismissed as ‘rabbit food’ are in fact very good for us. Beside it is pretty cheap to feed a rabbit! Like anything we need time to adjust to different eating habits. The more times you serve up salads then the more times they are going to become a habit in one’s life. All of our lives are simply a multitude of habits. Eating healthy salads is one habit worth pursuing. This is because it is going to keep your weight down plus build a strong body and immune system. You could liken it to taking control of your own health. How many times have you heard ‘you are what you eat’. Mmm……

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There are an abundant number of healthy snack recipes available on the web. Most of these are going to concentrate on natural foods low in fat and sugars. The all time favorite when looking for quick healthy recipes are the date rolls. Simply put the dates in the blender and then when that’s finished simply roll them in coconut and set in the fridge. Any nuts that take your fancy can be added to this mixture to add some variety to the taste.

For healthy eating we try to avoid the empty calories found in foods like donuts and packaged biscuits. These foods are high in calories but with little nutritional value. Your calories will come from the fat and sugar content and there will certainly be minimal or no vitamins or minerals in this kind of stuff. These foods don’t have much fibre either. Low fibre means it will be much harder for your body to get the residue of this food out of your system after you’ve digested it. A good example of this is white bread.

When we are entertaining it is common to put out a platter containing an assortment of processed meats, alongside various cheeses. Sadly, both of these contain ingredients harmful to our health. Processed meats have fallen from grace of recent years because of their cancer causing ingredient known as sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite is a close chemical relative of sodium nitrate. Also processed cheeses often contain very little cheese. What they do contain is a list of ingredients that reads like salt, food coloring, and harmful chemical additives such as sodium aluminum phosphate.

Besides if your diet is pre-dominantly meat and other animal products, you’re probably getting more fat and cholesterol than your body can use. We eat 2 to 3 times more protein than our bodies need in Western societies! Another enticement to make the switch is that animal protein is becoming increasingly costly compared to using fresh in season vegetables and fruit.

Therefore next time you prepare a platter for a snack just put in a little bit extra effort and you can achieve a result that is both nutritious and tasty. Try for all natural, with chopped carrots and celery sticks to dip into homemade dips. Homemade dips include the one we can all make easily which is of course guacamole. This is an avocado blended with whatever you prefer to achieve whatever taste is your preference. I always blend lots of garlic and chilli in with the tomatoes. This is not obviously going to suit everybody. Yoghurt is a reliable standby for dips. Once again blend in whatever ingredients that appeal to your taste. My take on this is lemon juice and chilli blended with a natural yoghurt.

The solution to having healthy snack recipes at hand is to plan ahead. Each week, add more grains and fresh ingredients on your shopping list. Naturally eating small portions of the so called unhealthy foods is not going to cause long term harm to anyone. This is on the proviso of course that you do not have a predisposing medical condition which contraindicates certain of these ingredients. It is only when they form the bulk of our diet that many of these foods will be working silently away doing damage to our bodies.

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Healthy lunch ideas are the answer for the multitudes of us out who want good health but just with no time to worry about finicky diets. Also it’s so easy to hop into a Mars bar or choc milk at lunch time instead of eating a less calorie laden lunch, like say a salad!

You really can’t beat healthy salads as number one choice here. The added benefits such as keeping ourselves slender by eating healthy foods is another spin off. Good health does mean being as close as the next Mars bar will permit you to be to your appropriate bodyweight. How’s this – one cup of chopped raw carrots contains a miserly 52 calories.

Carrots, let’s take a closer look at this humble vegetable which is an absolute must for healthy salads. It has all the wonderful vitamins in it from A to K (yes even the B vitamins in the form of B6).
It is also a good source of Thiamin, Niacin, Folate and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber. It’s very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. You almost feel healthier already just reading about it.

A healthy salad for lunch does not necessarily mean toiling away your precious time making some exotic salad to take for your lunch. It’s as simple as tossing into the lunch box a variety of different colored salad ingredients starting with the green foliage as a base. The green foliage of course means folate. Folate looks after our nervous system and brain function.

When wandering around the supermarket shelves and looking at prices you could be justified in thinking that eating healthy foods is expensive. Salad ingredients can be costly! Therefore buying whatever is in season will generally fix this. It is our experience that ‘in season’ produce is almost always significantly cheaper than ‘out of season’.

The carrot is often priced much cheaper than other vegetables so make sure to throw in some sliced carrot. It doesn’t matter if carrots are cooked or raw. Some people are concerned that they will lose the nutritional value in cooking. It is the water soluble vitamins that are affected when cooking carrots. It is about 20% of the nutritional value lost by cooking. That still leaves a bunch of benefits to eating this vegetable whether raw or cooked.

Remember to sit and think about what you are doing when eating raw carrots. It is easy to choke on raw carrot if you are not chewing carefully and concentrating while eating. Children definitely need their carrots cut into small sticks.

Healthy lunch ideas alone won’t bring good health. The exercise component needs to be factored in. Just as a simple healthy salad is sufficient in providing the nutritional benefits then so is a simple walk every other day for maintaining your physical activity levels.

So three cheers for the carrot with all of its nutritional benefits. Add it to your daily lunch time salad and make sure to take a walk around the block sometime during your day.

Getting started on good health does not need to be anything fancy. The basic salad has to be at the top of the list for healthy lunch ideas.

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