An interesting fact about preparing your salad is that you can get creative in your choice of ingredients to add in the recipe, develop your own formula and produce a unique taste. But, that can also be the challenging part as you create your salad. While you cannot fail to make a tasty salad, you may miss a vital point or two - the calorie count and/or your fitness goals. For example, if weight loss is your goal, going high on calorie is not going to help, which often happens when one goes about making a salad.
Here are the basic rules for making a perfect salad that supports your fitness goals.
Vegetables are great sources of vitamins and minerals. Since the nutrient profile of each vegetable varies from the other, include as many vegetables as possible to get all nutrients when you create your salad.
Green - Spinach, leafy greens, broccoli, cucumber, green cabbage, green beans, asparagus and, lettuce are some of the green vegetables. The nutrients in these vegetables include zinc, calcium, magnesium, potassium, protein, chlorophyll, vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B6, fiber, iron, copper, carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, phosphorus, and manganese.
Red - Beets, red onions, tomatoes, radishes, red cabbage and red potatoes are red vegetables. The nutrients in red vegetables include manganese, dietary fiber, vitamins A, B6, C, E and K, iron, copper, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, folate, potassium, and protein.
Blue And Purple - Eggplant, purple carrots, purple cabbage, purple potatoes and purple asparagus are some of the vegetables in blue and purple colors. The nutrients available in these vegetables include iron, copper, magnesium, calcium, dietary fiber, vitamins A, B1, B6, C and K, folate, protein, potassium, manganese.
White - Cauliflower, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, white corn and shallots. Nutrients available in white colored veggies include vitamins A, B6, C, K, iron, calcium, folate, protein, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, niacin, selenium, zinc, and manganese.
Add a minimum of three different colors of vegetables in your salad every day.
Veggies are a great source from which you can get your nutrients. However, plant proteins are not complete and hence to get your share of protein, you need something more in your salad. How about nuts? Tempting enough? Nuts are not all about taste as they are rich sources of nutrients and specific nuts are high in protein. Add almonds, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, and cashews as toppings. Remember, nuts are great for heart health too. If you aren't a vegetarian or vegan, you may add cooked egg, shrimp, sardines or chicken breast. Vegetarians and vegans can opt for chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, other legumes, and tofu. Take care while adding nuts to your salad as they are high caloric. About a tablespoon of your choice nut/nuts will suffice.
Oily dressing can be better for health than a creamy dressing. Olive oil is one of the best choices for a perfect salad dressing. Greek yogurt-based dressing for your salad is also ideal as it is rich in protein. Other healthy choices you can opt for as you create your salad include lemon vinaigrette salad dressing and sesame-ginger vinaigrette.
AFS, one of the many health conditions wrongly assessed, can be effectively balanced with the right type of diet. AFS is a set of symptoms caused by poor functioning of adrenal glands. AFS symptoms include fatigue, allergy, lethargy, pain in joints and mild depression. Yet another symptom is difficulty getting up in the mornings and having high levels of energy in the evenings. Since these symptoms can be assigned to certain other medical conditions as well, AFS often goes undiagnosed.
Having a perfectly planned balanced diet goes a long way in addressing AFS. To get nutrients to required levels, you can incorporate eating salad into your regular diet. To make it work best, create your salad customizing it to suit your needs and to be relieved from AFS.
Here is how a healthy salad helps to balance AFS:
The NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response is your body's response to stress. When adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, a stress hormone, do not function at optimum levels, the overall stress response of your body, meaning the NEM stress response, weakens. By improving adrenal function with a balanced diet, you can improve NEM stress response.
To preserve your body's stress response, you need to follow a perfect diet plan. When your NEM stress response is poor, it can result in symptoms including fatigue, low energy levels and insomnia develop. Create your salad to balance the symptoms as well as to improve adrenal function and your immunity thereby bringing your NEM stress response to function optimally.
While having a healthy salad greatly benefits your body and mind, some may experience an allergic reaction to certain ingredients. Hence, while you prepare your salad, ensure that you are not allergic to any ingredient that you prefer to add.
Many suffering from AFS may have poor digestive systems, it is also advisable not to mix fruits and vegetables to create your salad. It doesn’t have to be either an all-veggie salad or all-fruit salad. Of course, you can have your healthy share of nuts and seeds.
© Copyright 2018 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Creating a balanced salad can be a perfect solution to your health issues. A salad is a combination of various vegetables and other food sources that are rich in vitamins and minerals that boost immunity. Boosting immunity keeps illnesses away.
