The Word on Weightloss

Are you trying to lose weight by healthy dieting? Salads are a staple to all healthy weight loss diet plan.

In the winter, good salads can be hard to find. Lettuce is often colorless, tomatoes mealy, and greens lacking. With spring, however, salad ingredients reappear. And, in May, as gardens begin to yield their produce once again, tasty salads can make their way to our tables more frequently. In celebration of this, May has been named national salad month.

Recipe Ideas

Many salad ingredients are at their peak right now. At your local farmers’ market you can find lettuce, radishes, green onions, collards, kale, arugula, beets, garlic scapes (green garlic), chard, spinach, and other greens. These spring vegetables can be combined in various ways to make a multitude of healthy salads. Not only are salads healthy, they are also quick and easy to make.

Making up your own salad is easy! Most spring greens complement each other wonderfully. Try combining various greens and adding a dressing for a light side dish. Or, if you’re looking for something a little heartier, add some nuts, chicken, fish, cheese, or beans to the greens and you’ll have an easy lunch. The possibilities are as endless as your creativity.

Here are a few easy, healthy recipes to get you started:

• Endive Arugula Salad
• Chicken Cobb Salad
• Mixed Green Salad with Lemon, Olives, and Anchovies
• Chicken and Spring Greens with Açai Dressing

Nutrition Tips

As you enjoy these tasty spring salads, you can also enjoy knowing that you are sticking to a healthy diet. Salad greens contain vital phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and an abundance of fiber. They are also low in fat, sugars, and calories. There’s no need to worry about salad greens spoiling your diet.

Salad dressings, on the other hand, can add a lot of unwanted calories and fat to a meal. Be careful with those. Most dressings are high in fat and sugar. Here are a couple healthy dieting tips for salad dressing.

• Use only as much dressing as you need. Don’t use the dressing to hide the taste of the salad, but to enhance it. Salad should taste like salad, not like ranch dressing or raspberry vinaigrette.
• Buy low fat dressings. Most salad dressings come in full fat and low fat.
• Make your own dressings. This gives you control over what goes into your body.
• Replace unhealthy ingredients with healthy, low fat alternatives. Choose sugar substitutes to cut back on the calories.

National Salad Month is a great chance to experiment with adding salads to your healthy diet. These nutritionally dense salads can help you lose weight and enjoy eating.