Make one simple change to your diet – add a salad almost every day – and let it stockpile loads of nutrients to fight disease, ward off pounds, up your immunity and your energy.
What are Phytonutrients?
Phyto- means “plant”, and phytonutrients, also called phytochemicals, come from plants. Besides the rich vitamins and minerals found in vegetables and fruits, recent research have found hundreds, and perhaps even thousands of other substances that are beneficial to humans that are produced by plants.
Why should you eat a salad?
Salads are not only easy to prepare, they are also loaded with a lot of health benefits. Just cut and mix some vegetables and fruits and your green salad is ready. You can also help yourself with a side salad with fat-free salad dressing. Salads are also alluring both to the eyes and your taste buds. Here are some major health benefits of salads:
- High in fibre
Above all, salads contain high amount of fibre and hence prevent constipation and reduce cholesterol level in the body. The high amount of fibre also gives the feeling of a full stomach and helps in weight loss. - Provides nutrition benefits of fruits and vegetables
Green salads with raw vegetables contain essential anti-oxidants like folic acid, alpha and beta-carotene, lycopene and vitamins E & C. Anti-oxidants help to free the body from the damaging effects of the free radicals. Having high intake of fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of a host of diseases including cancer. - Prevents obesity
Researches suggest that salads not only contain fewer calories, it also enhances satiety (feelings of fullness) and reduces the total number of calories eaten during the meal. Hence, you end up eating less calorie-rich foods – as long as salads are free of high calories, that is, they should be devoid of fatty dressings. - Helps you live longer
Eating a little good fat (like the monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, avocado and nuts) with your vegetables appears to help your body absorb protective phytochemicals, like lycopene from tomatoes and lutein from dark green vegetables.
If you dress your salad with a little olive oil, there may even be some additional years in it for you. Italian research on people aged 60 and older has suggested that a diet that includes plenty of olive oil and raw vegetables is linked to reduced mortality.
Eat Your Colours!
Interestingly, a lot of the phytochemicals that are good for us also produce bright colours in vegetables and fruits. This is where the saying “Eat Your Colours” comes from. It’s also important to understand that each of these foods contains many different phytochemicals that can take care of different oxidation reactions in our cells. Each of them probably has a slightly different effect in our bodies. This is why it is important to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.
The Cabbage Family, also known as cruciferous vegetables. These contain chemicals (sulforaphane, isothiocyanate and idoles, to be exact) that help breakdown cancer-causing compounds. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, bok choy, and watercress are in this group.
The Allium Family Vegetables contain compounds that protect DNA. Onions (all kinds, including green onions), garlic, leeks, shallots, and chives are part of this group.
The Purple/Red Familys some of the most powerful antioxidant foods are in this family. Most of the berries (especially blueberries), plums (and prunes), red grapes (including raisins, grape juice, and red wine), cranberries, and pomegranates are in this family. The colour in these fruits comes from a groups of chemicals called anthocyanins, which reduce inflammation, protect against cancer, and recent studies show good effects in eyes, arteries, and brains.
The Red Family tomatoes and tomato products, watermelon, pink grapefruit. These foods contain lycopene, which studies have shown reduce the risk of several types of cancer. Apricots and pink guavas are also sources of lycopene.
The Deep Orange Family contain fruits and veggies rich in the carotenes. Carrots pumpkins, mangos, apricots, cantaloupe, and sweet potatoes are some of the foods in this group. Carotenes help improve communication between cells as well as doing many of the same functions as other antioxidants.
The Yellow-Orange Family contain the citrus fruits as well as peaches, pineapple, and papaya. These fruits are rich in vitamin C and flavanoids, another group of antioxidants which help our immune systems.
The Green Family vary in which family they belong to. The dark green leafy vegetables are rich in lutein, among other phytochemicals. Others belonging to this family are green beans, avocados, kiwi fruit, green peppers, and honeydew melon.
5 Ingredients to Avoid
Salads can be a friend or enemy. The key to making a good healthy salad is to be aware of the ingredients you put in your salad. Here are ingredients you should be conscious of:
- Salad Dressings
Many salad dressing (especially the creamy ones) have high contents of bad fats. Not only that, they also contain many unhealthy ingredients such as MSG, artificial flavourings, lots of sugars and hydrogenated oils, which are considered dangerous trans fat. The biggest problem when using processed salad dressings is that most people use more than one serving, which makes them consume a lot more of the bad fat contents. You can prepare your own salad dressings so that unhealthy preservatives and artificial flavourings are avoided. For a simple salad dressing, you can combine some olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. On the other hand, you may find bottled salad dressings from your local health food stores that contain only whole ingredients and less fats and oils. 
Croutons
Don’t we all love to add croutons to our salads for the crunch and flavour that they add? However, croutons are made from processed white bread, which equivalents to empty carbohydrates and high calories. They also contain many artificial ingredients such as preservatives, hydrogenated oils and flavourings. You can always find a healthier alternative. For that extra crunch, try adding a couple of tablespoons of raw nuts like almonds, cashews, walnuts and pistachios. They may have high contents of fat, but the fats are the healthy kind.- Cheese
Over 100 calories is what you will consume if you add a 1/4 cup of shredded cheese to your salad. Including cheese in your salad is really not that bad as long as you choose natural cheeses like parmesan, blue cheese and feta, and you use it sparingly. Avoid using processed cheeses; they are full of artificial flavours, colourings and salt. - Bacon Bits, Salami & Ham
We know that bacon bits, salami and ham give salad that extra flavour. However, flavour is not the only thing you consume when you add these ingredients in your salad. Real bacon bits and processed meats contain harmful preservatives like sodium nitrites along with high doses of bad fats. - “Breaded” Meats
Crispy breaded meats are definitely unhealthy ingredients for your salad because they contain a lot of harmful fats. Breaded is just another term for fried, and therefore you should avoid putting any in your salad.
