Is Eating Salad Everyday Healthy?

Many know of the incredibly high health benefits of salad, but will it remain healthy for everyday consumption?

This question may pop into your head due to an intense liking to salads or a big leap towards healthier living, and it’s a perfectly valid query. After all, it is believed that anything too much is not good — even if it’s vegetables.

Let’s start with the benefits of salad.

Salads are undeniably one of the most versatile dishes because you can use and add any ingredient you like, which means, the benefits of salad are sort of dependent on the ingredients you put. Nevertheless, the mains are usually the same: tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, broccoli, and leafy green vegetables such as romaine lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage, and more. These are where most of the nutrients come from.

Salad as a Source of Fiber

High-fiber salads are one way to fill you up while leaving you feeling amazing. An online blog by Beauty Bites features an authentic experience of eating salad added with walnuts, white beans, carrots, and corn — the perfect ingredients to instantly turn your everyday salad into a bowl of fiber-rich goodness. According to the author, “It’s thrown together in what feels like a second and it’s amazing – it is satisfying, but light and energizing.”

Fiber is a health essential that contributes a ton of benefits such as lowering cholesterol, promoting healthy bowel movements, protection from diabetes and heart diseases, and reducing the risk of cancer.

Now as good as that sounds, eating high-fiber salad every single day is far from healthy, especially over a short space of time. The recommended daily intake of fiber is 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams per day for men. Furthermore, according to MedicineNet, eating more than 70g per day is not advised as it can lead to adverse effects.

Effects include bloating, constipation, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dehydration, fatigue, and lethargy.

Salad for Gut Health

Due to versatility, salad is not an unusual food for adding ingredients that make it the perfect gut health companion. The great news is that gut-friendly ingredients aren’t hard to find, in fact, they are widely used for most salads! High in prebiotic fibers, these include garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, artichokes, and dandelion greens.

For a more unique taste, opt for fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, or yogurt. They are also rich in probiotics and add a ton of flavor to your salads!

Salad for Weight Loss

Having good weight management and losing belly fat might just be one of the most effective lures for people trying to get salad as one, If not their main star, of an everyday meal. If you’re one of them, you’re on the right track!

Losing weight is basically taking in fewer calories than your body is used to. And eating salads, as you now know, with their typical ingredients like fruits, vegetables, and small amounts of nuts full of fiber, water, and healthy fats, is one master for making you full without loading up on calories.

According to an article by Comoncy, if you’re going to eat salad every day with the purpose of losing weight, make sure to watch your ingredient choices and portion sizes. Fruits and vegetables must be in larger quantities and any proteins or fats in smaller amounts. Keep an eye on how you’re dressing your salad, too. Your best bet is to choose oil-based, natural dressings in small doses.

Best Salad Dressing

Salad dressings are a topic not typically discussed among people who aren’t exactly salad-eaters, but if you’re getting the hang of salad-eating, you’d know it’s one of the most important things to be considered. Regardless of how healthy the ingredients of your salad are, if your dressing is the complete opposite, it’s just going to cancel it out — making the salad practically useless in terms of health benefits.

Now there isn’t exactly a “bad” or “good” salad dressing. It’s easy to say mayonnaise is a bad salad dressing, but every mayo on the grocery store shelves is different. Simply take a look at the nutrition labels on the back of the product, the lower the calories, sugars, and sodium are, the better.

According to Everyday Health, the number of calories must be lower than 45 per teaspoon, added sugars lower than 5g per serving, and sodium lower than 115mg.

A good salad dressing that fits this criteria is TopChef Asian Sesame Dressing by O-Superstore which you can get from Iskaparate.com. It’s proven both delicious and healthy, perfect for those who want tasty salad without compromising its benefits!

Salad for Heart Health

According to a 2021 study by the European Journal of Epidemiology, eating just one cup of leafy green vegetables a day may help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

It was discovered in the study that people who ate the most nitrate-rich vegetables, especially leafy greens such as spinach and lettuce, had a 12% to 26% lower risk of heart disease over the course of the study. One cup of greens per day appeared to be the optimum amount, and surprisingly, people who ate higher amounts didn’t further lower their risk.

In the process of digestion, nitrate found in foods is converted into nitric oxide, a compound that relaxes and widens blood vessels.

Other food recommendations for heart patients include fresh vegetables like tomatoes, cabbage, okra, edamame, and carrots, as well as leafy greens like Romaine lettuce, spinach, bok choy, and kale. Keep these in mind if you’re trying to keep those heartbeats healthy!

Is Salad Good for Uric Acid?

Gout is a common and complex form of arthritis caused by high levels of uric acid in the bloodstream. Purines are found in a variety of foods and drinks and can also be produced by the body. This makes the disease pretty easy to acquire, especially if you aren’t careful enough about the food you give your body.

Having said that, keeping your uric acid levels low and at bay can only be achieved through good food choices. Avoid food high in purine and fructose as they can trigger gout attacks. For food recommendations, vegetables are one of your best friends.

According to Lybrate, India's Best Patient Consulting Portal, tomatoes, broccoli, and cucumbers are some of the uric acid foods that are a must to include in your diet. Among these, tomatoes are the best you could have for lowering uric acid levels. Fresh tomato is alkaline by nature, and when it is exposed to the bloodstream, it increases the alkalinity of the blood. Raw vegetables like potatoes or corn are also effective, but make sure to eat them raw or steamed.

In search of the best salad recipes? Try this Pili Nut Salad Recipe!