01. How many calories does your salad have?

Staying in shape is a universal desire so much so that we try every possible thing to stay fit, healthy and glamorous. Right from strolling the internet for easy hacks to lose weight to going for rigorous exercises and fad diets to get that perfect body.

However, ‘What we eat’ is the most essential thing when it comes to losing weight, and this is the reason why most of us resort to salad, fruits or soup diets. No wonder, salads are far more healthy than any cooked food, but did you know what you add to your salad to make it delicious can simply decide the fate of your weight loss plans.

If you too thought that you can blindly gobble up your salad assuming that it well help you lose weight, then you need pause for a minute and think about its calorie counts as not all salad will help you lose weight. Here’s all you need to know before you prepare or order your favorite salad.

​02. Why is going for salad is a good idea?

There’s a plethora of options to try, when it comes to making a delicious salad. Right from adding your favourite veggies, fruits, meats, nuts, condiments, spices and herbs, a bowl full of salad is no less than a bowl full of happiness. After all, eating healthy gives you the satisfaction that you’re on the right track of staying fit and healthy.

Apart from all this, raw fruits and veggies have the maximum concentration of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, carbohydrates and healthy fibers. All these components present in raw veggies and fruits can actually amp up the health quotient of your salads, but what can silently ruin your endeavours are the condiments, high-fat cheese, fatty meats and oil based dressings. However not everything you add to your salad is unhealthy. Here are a few most commonly used ingredients that can secretly increase the calorie count and make you gain weight.

03. Here’s what experts have to say!

According to Tanya S Kapoor, nutritionist, Wellness by Tanya, ‘Raw fruits & vegetables are always good for our bodies. This does not mean that we have to deprive of what we like to eat or only end up eating salads. Salad can always be a side with the choice of our meal. Try and make an exotic salad bowl using fresh seasonal vegetables, fruit, and leaves. Salad enhances the good bacteria in our gut – it makes digestion and metabolism better, as a result, helps to boost our energy level. When eaten consistently not only you will experience a feeling of fullness rather you will also not feel constipated’.

She further adds “In order to make it interesting and nutritional, one must always indulge in salads which are a combination of a little bit of grain, nuts, seeds, some protein, and good fat. Adding all the combinations makes it a complete meal nourishing you inside out. Hence to make a salad not so boring one can add everything in the right proportion not overindulging in them and make it a wholesome meal.

​04. Salad you must eat if you want to lose weight.

To stick to a healthy diet plan, one must ensure that the salads you eat have a perfect balance of essential nutrients like proteins, healthy fats, carbs, fiber, antioxidants; this will help in giving your body the much needed nutrition. However, we often use many ingredients to amp up the taste without paying heed to the ingredients that can silently add on to our weight.

If you are on a healthy diet, then you must opt for low-fat and low-calorie salads like Sprouts salads, Bean salads with lean meat, Salmon Avocado salad, Turkey and Cottage Cheese salad, Fruit salad with low fat cream, Lentil and Tofu salad, Khimchi salad and the list goes on. In fact, there are thousands of things you can put together and make a hearty salad but what to add is the key to a healthy weight management.

According to Tanya S Kapoor, “Nuts and seeds being high on antioxidants helps boost our immunity. Adding good protein in the form of chicken, fish, egg, tofu and paneer. Legumes can make a salad even better as it helps in strengthening our muscles. Adding good fat to our salad helps absorb nutrients even better from the raw vegetables. One can add avocado, olive oil, virgin coconut oil or lemon based homemade salad dressings to keep it healthy.”

05. Unhealthy salad ingredients you must avoid if your are planning to lose weight

Going for a salad based diet is the best way to embark on the weightloss journey, but what you add to your salad matters the most. However, adding the right portion of every ingredient is the key to effective weight management. In fact, adding too much sugar condiments, adding loads of canned pickles, fatty cheese and fatty meats can be one of the major reasons why your salad is not helping you lose weight.

In fact, you would be amazed to know that salads like Russian salad has around 206 calories out of which only the fat content is around 140 calories. Similarly, the popular Cheesy Chicken salad has around 282 calories and Meaty Pasta salad has around 309 calories.

We mostly overlook the calorie count, when it comes to making or ordering our salads, but the condiments and our fattening additions can make our salad unhealthy. Thus here are few things you must avoid if you want to stay in shape.

06. ​Pastas

Pasta is processed and packaged with additives and some of them are rich in gluten. Hence, adding pastas to your salad can lead to constipation, as gluten sticks to the intestinal walls. Moreover, pasta is rich in refined carbohydrates that can actually spoil the nutritional aspect of your salads. Hence, going for grains like quinoa or seeds like chia or flax are a great idea to make your salad satiating.

07. Avoid starchy carbs

Sweet corn and potatoes are delicious and can make your salads satiating as well as delicious, but both these foods are rich in starchy carbohydrates that will instantly spike your sugar levels. This can also lead to diabetes and other lifestyle diseses in the long run.

08. Fat free salad dressings

It is a common notion that fat free condiments are great for your salads as they add a punch of taste and health, but did you know that these fat free condiments are actually fattening. This is because to make these dressing fat free, the fatty components are removed and in order to do so a good amount of sugar is added to give these condiments a great taste. Hence, making homemade dressings is the best way to amp up the health quotient of your salads.

09. ​Bacon bits and processed sausages

Most people go for processed bacon strips or bacon bits or meaty sausages as tasty additions to the salads, but did you know these processed and salty foods were doing more bad than good to your health. Hence, if you want to make your salads healthy add boiled or tossed lean meats like chicken or fish like salmon. This will add a nice twist of taste to your salads.

10.Fresh cream

Adding fat-rich heavy cream or whipping cream to your diet can add on the calories. However, dairy fat has a healthy composition of fats and nutrients, but can lead to weight gain. Instead you can use low-fat cream or fat-free yogurt.

11.​Oil based salad dressings

Oil based salad dressing are rich in fats and are made using additives and preservatives to increase their shelf life. In fact, most oil based dressings are rich in fats and omega 3 fatty acids, and an excessive consumption of fatty acids and additives can lead to inflammation.

Resource : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/food-news/if-you-think-you- can-eat-salads-to-lose-weight-read-this/photostory/76445642.cms?picid=76446863