Salad Tips

Here is a question I recently received from FOODPICKER.org:

Q: We have a large salad bar at the work cafeteria that I would like to take advantage of for lunch (especially during the summer).  I’m trying to lose weight and control blood sugar.  Could you give me some tips on what to choose and what to steer clear on at the salad bar?

A: Salads are a great way to get in your daily fruit and vegetable intake. These foods and are wonderful sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients. However, there are some items on salad bars that can make a salad fattening and high in calories.

When assembling your salad at the salad bar, you may want to keep the healthy plate in mind. In addition to the non starchy vegetables, you’ll also want protein, starch, fruit and a milk or yogurt. If you don’t have access to fruit, milk or yogurt just substitute them with other healthy carbohydrate choices like beans, a whole wheat roll, or a starchy vegetable.

When choosing your vegetables, go for brightly colored ones like spinach, carrots, peppers, broccoli, etc. Add some protein like a hard boiled egg, lean meat or reduced fat cheese. And then add a couple of carbohydrates (fruit, milk, yogurt and/or starch).

You may have the option of adding things like rich cheeses, nuts, seeds, avocado, olives or croutons to your salad. Many of these are healthy items, but they are high in fat, so put no more than a total of 1-2 teaspoons of these items in your salad.

Most salad dressings are oil based. Oil is a fat, so eating these in moderation is best. At most salad bars, the types of dressings will be limited. If you want to keep calories very low, try using lemon juice, lime juice, salsa or low fat cottage cheese instead. If none of these seem appetizing to you, consider using a vinaigrette or low-fat, low-carbohydrate dressing.If no labels are around for you to know how many calories or fat are in the dressing, you can probably assume that 1 tablespoon of a “light” dressing has 45 calories and 5 grams of fat in it.

The high calorie, high fat dressings that you usually want to avoid or eat very small portions of are creamy dressings like Ranch or Caesar (these can contain around 14 grams of fat per tablespoon!!!).

Buen Provecho!

Mandy Seay is a registered and licensed dietitian. She works as a nutrition consultant in Austin, Texas specializing in diabetes, weight loss, lipid control and preventative nutrition. For more health articles and nutrition information, check out Mandy’s website Nutritionistics.