Basics of a healthy diet. Salads: to eat or not to eat?
It’s time to get back to the subject of healthy eating and say to diets: “NO!”
Today I want to talk about lettuce as a fundamental part of a healthy and adequate diet. I think this area of nutrition is extremely important. I myself understood the need for the presence of “correct” salads in the human diet not so long ago.
What is the main difficulty in eating salads?
If you touch fruits, everything is much easier with them. Almost everyone loves fruit. Fruit is the same sugar so, by indulging in a fruity diet, you still risk gaining extra pounds. We have already discussed this. And in my life, there was a stage where fruit made up almost 40% of the daily diet. But, as they say, everything is good in moderation. And measurement has the most direct relationship to fruit.
What about vegetables and herbs? After all, they are the basis of almost all salads. Our taste habits, instilled in us from childhood, often prevent us from properly appreciating the taste of raw vegetables. Often we don’t feel it at all. Tomatoes are not tasty without salt, cucumbers – water, pumpkin, beets … What else can you eat raw? Yes, there are a lot of them – useful, but completely tasteless vegetables for us. That’s why we use vinaigrettes, especially mayonnaise… Our taste buds are too used to strong flavors, which are often produced by flavor enhancers and other chemical additives that manufacturers do not spare us at all.
Indeed, washed down with commercial mayonnaise (or a similar sauce), a salad practically loses all its meaning in a healthy diet.
If we do not touch on the usefulness of vegetables and fruits, but directly approach the topic of dietary nutrition, then the great advantage of vegetables over fruits is that the amount of vegetables that can be consumed is much higher than that of fruits. . Yes, and eating as many cucumbers as cherries or strawberries, you see, it’s difficult. If we include a salad with every meal, serving it before the main course, we kill two birds with one stone: we get a good dose of vitamins, trace elements, fiber and fill the stomach, we are satisfied, reducing the amount of consumption of the main dish after the salad meal. Try an experiment: a macaroni lunch (but with cheese) and a salad and mac and cheese lunch. I am sure that in the first case you will eat a double portion of pasta, because at the beginning of the meal the stomach will be empty and you will need double the portion of the main course to obtain a “signal of satiety”. The second option seems to me more competent and useful.
A salad can also be a great dinner, replacing your favorite cut of meat or fries. Of course, if you are only at the beginning of your journey towards a “healthy lifestyle”, you will have a hard time changing your habits, having fun and consuming enough green salad. Believe me, only time will help here. Over time, your taste habits change and your experience with food will certainly change. What was tasteless may one day become a favorite dish. The sauce plays a very important role in our perception of the salad. It is important that it is not only tasty, but also useful. For me, sauces based on vegetable oils are ideal: olive, flax, nuts. Try to choose a delicious oil for yourself, add a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (by the way, it helps to negate the use of salt in the salad) or lemon (orange) juice, season with freshly ground pepper, mix well and season the salad. Let the sauce absorb all the ingredients (10 minutes) and enjoy.
To make a more satisfying salad, you can always add chicken meat, fresh, grilled or steamed tuna. The protein will give the salad the properties of the main dish, increase its nutritional properties and fill you up like a potato chip.
Well, now the salad recipe, which I often prepare for dinner. If the lunch was dense and high in calories, such a salad is able to give you a feeling of satiety until the morning.
Cauliflower, radish and mint salad
Ingredients:
For 2 servings
- 8-10 cauliflower florets
- 8-10 cherry tomatoes
- 4 radishes
- 3 sprigs of mint
Sauce:
- juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 tablespoons flaxseed oil (can be substituted)
- Salt, freshly ground black pepper to g
Sequencing:
- Boil the cabbage in boiling, lightly salted water for 4-6 minutes. Cool down. Cut large.
- Cut cherry tomatoes into halves. Chop mint leaves. Radish cut into thin slices. Mix all vegetables in a salad bowl.
- Prepare the sauce. To do this, mix all the ingredients for the sauce and shake. Dress salad with dressing. Serve at the table.