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Salad is synonymous with vegetables or fruits. So, many people who want to lose weight or who want to be healthy prefer to eat salads instead of eating other foods. The composition of the salad which usually consists of vegetables or fruits is certainly healthy. However, if you just eat a salad every day, does it guarantee your health?
What is a salad?
Before starting any further, we should know in advance what is meant by salad. Salad is usually not a main dish, usually served as an appetizer or side dish. However, a salad can be used as a main dish, with a larger portion, of course.
Salad is usually served cold and consists of a mixture of various ingredients, usually raw food. Different food mixtures, different names of salads. For example, the Caesar salad, whose main ingredient consists of green vegetables (especially Romaine lettuce) added with garlic vinaigrette dressing.
Salad is served by only mixing ingredients. You can create your own mixture of ingredients in a salad according to your taste. The ingredients in a salad can include vegetables, pasta, nuts, seafood, tuna, eggs, chicken, fruit, and others. Don't forget to always add salad dressing. Yes, salad dressing is an important part of the salad. Without salad dressing, the salad will not become a salad.
Salad dressing can be interpreted as a spice in a salad, so salad dressing useful for enhancing the taste and texture of the salad. There are many types salad dressing. Usually salad dressing consists of basic ingredients, such as oil, dairy products (cream or yogurt), and mayonnaise. One of a kind salad dressing is vinaigrette dressing, which is made from a mixture of olive oil or canola oil, vinegar, mustard, and can be added with spices.
Is it healthy to just eat salad?
Based on the explanation above, we know that the composition of a salad can consist of anything. Not only vegetables or fruits, salads can also consist of protein sources, such as eggs, tuna, shrimp, chicken, meat, and others. In addition, every salad is added salad dressing, which can be a source of fat.
A complete salad usually consists of basic ingredients, main ingredients, garnish, and salad dressing.
- Basic material, used as a base for salads. Usually in the form of green vegetables, such as lettuce (lettuce).
- The main ingredient, this is a salad filling. Usually consists of vegetables, such as green vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, and others. It can also be added with boiled eggs, tuna, boiled or grilled chicken, or it can also be added with potatoes.
- Garnish or decoration, added to enrich the taste, texture and color. Anything can be used as garnish. For example, grilled chicken on a Caesar salad.
- Dressing, this is an ingredient that you cannot miss. Dressing can be mayonnaise, olive oil, vinaigrette dressing, and others.
If the salad consists of a complete composition, there are sources of carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins and minerals, the salad is certainly a nutritious and healthy food.
- Source carbohydrate it can be potatoes, pasta, vegetables, or fruits
- Source protein can be found in fish, chicken, meat, eggs
- Source fat you can get from dressings, in the form of mayonnaise or oil
- Source vitamins and minerals, found in vegetables and fruits
If the salad contains complete nutrition like this, you have no problem if you just eat salad, as long as your nutritional needs are still met. The consequence may be you need to increase the portion of your salad meal.
However, if your salad consists only of vegetables, of course the salad does not meet the nutrients needed by you. If you just want to eat salad a day, you should still pay attention to the nutritional content in the salad you eat whether it's complete or not. You can create your own salad that contains a variety of nutrients.
What are the benefits of salad?
Lots of vegetables or fruit in a salad can keep you full longer, so you eat less, and ultimately help you lose weight. Apart from that, vegetables and fruits also contain lots of fiber which can help you lower your cholesterol and can also prevent constipation.
Salad which consists of lots of green vegetables also contains lots of antioxidants (from vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, lycopene, and alpha and beta-carotene). These antioxidants can help protect the body from damage caused by free radicals.
Salads also contain good fats. These good fats can be found in olive oil, avocado, and nuts which are usually found in salads. Eating good fats along with vegetables can help your body absorb good phytochemicals, such as lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables.
