Salad comes from the Latin word “herba salta” which translates to salted herbs because greens were usually seasoned with dressings containing a lot of salt.
May is salad month and a great time of year to start adding more salads to your meal plans. Most Americans don’t get the recommended 5 to 9 vegetables per day. A salad containing lettuce and a few other vegetables can fulfill at least a couple of those servings.
Check out additional benefits of eating a salad:
Salad is a great source of fiber which can help lower cholesterol levels and prevent constipation. The additional fiber can help with weight loss because of the satiety it provides; this is why salads are served before the main course to help prevent overeating.
Frequently eating salads topped with additional fruits and vegetables can provide antioxidants, vitamin C, E, folic acid, lycopene, and carotenes depending on what fruits or vegetables you add to the salad. These antioxidants protect the body from free radicals.
Healthy fat added to the salad helps the body absorb the nutrients from the greens. This can be olive oil or avocado oil. You can also add olives, sunflower seeds, almonds, or walnuts for more healthy fat. If you like a bit creamier dressing, a mashed avocado mixed with olive or avocado oil is a great option. Most premade dressings have a lot of added sugar and are best avoided.
Here are a couple of other posts I have shared about greens to discover more: Dark Leafy Greens and Four Leafy Greens to Add to Your Meal Plans.
Fun Salad Facts
- Lettuce is a member of sunflower family.
- Christopher Columbus introduced lettuce to the Americas.
- Lettuce is the second most popular fresh vegetable in the United States behind potatoes.
- The average American eats approximately 30 pounds of lettuce per year.
- Lettuce was first eaten by the ancient kings of Persia 2,500 years ago.
- In ancient Egypt, lettuce was considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac.
- Ancient Greeks and Romans thought that eating lettuce helped you to have a good night’s sleep.
- Cobb salad was invented in a Hollywood restaurant and named after the owner Robert Cobb. The ingredients can be remembered using the mnemonic EAT COBB: eggs, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon, and blue cheese.
- Over 20 million servings of salads are consumed every week.
- The practice of salad being served first was started by the now famous medical practitioner, Hippocrates, who believed that raw vegetables easily slipped through the system and did not cause obstruction for food that followed
Could you challenge yourself to eat one salad a day for a month? Spring is a great time to do this with local farms producing great spring mixes and other lettuces. How do you think you would feel after eating one salad a day for one month? We have incorporated this habit for most days, and I know that I actually miss it if we forgo having a salad at dinner.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Heather
Do you happen to have recipes for dressings? I usually like; Poppy Seed, Ranch or Rasberry Vinegarett. Thanks
Patty, I emailed you some recipes to try. Let me know what you think.