Eat Green and be Healthy

The United States is regarded as the fattest country and also the home to most of the world’s diet fanatics (obsessed totally with dieting). Researchers have marveled that green food once had a bad reputation because it was only associated with a diet-fanatic girlfriend who wouldn’t order anything other than green salads. They have also found that diet and fitness are closely interdependent. It means that if you eat food with no workout, no matter how healthy the food is, you will get obese. Conversely, if you hit the gym with lots of junk, it will adversely affect you, and you will not get good results.

Except for a few, you will not find people ordering a salad when eating out or even eating in. People think these salad stereotypes have no significance for their bodies or health. However, their perception can be replaced with a properly structured one, which can be the real nutritional powerhouse of a meal. Salads offer many benefits, including your looks and health, which other cooked foods can’t claim.

What’s so green and healthy about salads?

Have you had your salad today? If not, you have done wrong with yourself because, researchers say, having a salad bowl for breakfast, lunch, or dinner every day seems to be one of the healthiest and simplest habits you can adopt.

Salads can make your day because they provide fresh vegetables and fruits. You are probably wondering how salads can be so powerful and rich. Green salad is a source of high fiber and other antioxidants, and to make it a powerful diet, you can add nuts, grains, steak, and salamis.

You must compose your salads well if you want them to be artful, filling, flavorful, and nutritious. Along with the abovementioned features, salads are cool, crunchy, and tasty. If you want to eat green salads, you can easily find them on the menu of almost every restaurant nowadays. You can also make a green salad at home in 5 minutes by adding ingredients from lettuce to carrots and other veggies.

Reasons why salads are beneficial and healthy for a person:

A salad bowl each day has never-ending benefits because it contains lots of fiber, antioxidants, and protein. These are mentioned in detail below:

1. Fiber—Salads contain enough fiber, which means the risk of developing heart disease could be reduced if you eat them daily. Vegetables in salads are a great source of insoluble fiber, which helps keep your digestive tract healthy. A handful of nuts, seeds, or beans added to the salad will boost soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol and keep blood sugar balanced.
2. Antioxidants – Salad ingredients are a rich source of carotenoids, vitamins C and A, in the form of antioxidants. These include beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene, which protect healthy cells from damage caused by free radicals. You can fulfill your antioxidant need by having a cup of spinach, which has 93 percent, and lettuce, which has 88 percent of vitamin A. Adding half of a medium-sized carrot to your salad will give you more than 100 percent of your daily vitamin A. Moreover, adding sweet red peppers, tomatoes, and broccoli to your salad will give you a better mix of both antioxidants.
3. Protein – Protein intake is necessary for the body, and to fulfill its needs, you should stick to leafy greens because these are the perfect source of protein. You can also add low-fat cheese and lean meat such as chicken or turkey into your salad as a dressing. Furthermore, add half a cup of beans or a 1-ounce serving of nuts or seeds to crunch your salad.

Benefits of eating salad:

There are several benefits of eating salad; these are as mentioned below:

1. The most important benefit of eating salad directly relates to your skin as it increases your hydration level. Most green leafy veggies contain a majority of water. So, by eating them, you naturally hydrate your body. Veggies in salad are very helpful for your appearance and comfort because these help you deal with summer’s warm temperatures.
2. Salads are fast because they can be quickly prepared. The basic mantra of salad preparation is that it only requires washing and cutting the vegetables, and no baking is required.
3. Everyone can make a salad; just by adding some simple ingredients, you can prepare a very delicious and crunchy salad.
4. Salad diversity makes everyone happy because you can have a different salad at the same table by adjusting the ingredients according to their likes or dislikes.
5. Salads are unlimited because there is no end to the number of recipes. You can start with fresh greens like spinach and lettuce by adding beans, grains, or nuts.
6. Salads help digestion, as they do not cause bloating like fatty meals. They are also full of high fiber, which helps you sweep through the digestive system by carrying leftover junk with it and leaving intestinal and colon walls free to absorb vitamins.

Some healthy recipes for making a salad:

To prepare a salad, you need to have a lot of vegetables and your imagination. Start with:

1. Squid, samphire cheese pea salad:

To prepare the mentioned salad, you need a large pan of salted water to boil, add the peas to the water, and cook for 3 minutes.

• Now, drain the water and leave to steam-dry
• Cut onions or spring onions per your choice into a bowl with 1 tbsp lemon juice. Spread olive oil, squid, and black pepper over the onions. Toss them together and leave the mixture to sit for a few minutes.
• After a few minutes, add the shredded parmesan cheese over the mixture, along with the steam-dried peas and samphire. Toss together for a few minutes and season well with oregano and red peppers.
• Now, for the dressing, add shredded parmesan in a small quantity to give the salad a mouth-watering look. Place 4 quarter-cut lemon wedges on the side of the salad.

2. Burnt corn salad:

This salad is very delicious and is the best option for diabetic patient’s fitness. Burnt corn salad makes the person fanatic about this recipe. Mexicans love smoked or barbecued flavor in their food. This salad is the best example of fresh corn kernels being grilled over an open flame to impart a burnt-smoked flavor. One of the most important points of this salad is that it is extremely low in calories and fat but high in fiber. Adding some tomatoes, onions, and capsicum with corn enhances the flavor of this salad. Add some lemon juice to the salad and olive oil to dress and mix for a tangy flavor.