Do I Have to Eat a Salad to be Healthy and Lose Weight?

“Oh, you’re just going to have a salad?”

I’ve heard this countless times throughout the years from friends and family. When consistently asked this, I began to question myself. Is there something wrong with having a salad?

Absolutely not.

From a functional nutrition and medicine perspective, taking it back to the basics of eating to fuel the body to prevent health problems and chronic disease we need to consume a full range of phytonutrients and enough micronutrients to stimulate enzymes that help the body get rid of toxins, boost the immune system, improve cardiovascular health, promote healthy estrogen metabolism, and stimulate the death of cancer cells.

Commonly, we eat too few servings of plant foods every day. It’s been estimated that the average American gets somewhere between 2-4 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. We need much more – about 9-13 servings if we want to prevent chronic disease.

A typical serving is only half a cup of cooked vegetables, one cup of raw leafy vegetable, or a medium-sized piece of fruit. On average, we want to aim for every meal of the day to have about 3-4 servings of plant foods so that at three general meals per day, we would make our serving requirements. Pretty much half of our lunch and dinner plates should be vegetables or greens.

Since living in Bali, I’ve found that plant-based foods are in plenty. I have had no reasonable excuses to not incorporate them. The markets available are mostly filled with fresh vegetables, greens, and fruit just begging to be consumed.

My go to salad here in Bali is:

  • 2-3 cups arugula

  • 1/2 cup purple cabbage (pickled or fermented is a plus)

  • 1-2 TB fresh cilantro

  • 1-2 shallots

  • 1/2 red bell pepper

  • 1/4 avocado

  • 1-2 TB pumpkin and/or chia seeds

  • 1 TB feta

For the dressing:

  • 1-tsp EVO

  • 1 TB raw apple cider vinegar

  • 1 TB stone ground mustard

  • 1 TB citrus (orange or lemon usually)

  • Salt, pepper

Play around with the measurements on the dressing and find what works for your taste. I use to blend my dressings. Most recently I’ve been simply adding them into the bowl with the greens and veggies and tossing for a minute or two to coat everything well. Blending the ingredients works well if you are prepping for the week. You can double, triple, quadruple the recipe….whatever works for you.

The key, I’ve found, when using copious amounts of greens in a salad recipe is to use a pair of scissors to reduce the bulk. Seem odd? Maybe so. It works like a charm. Try it.