I know I have a health blog, but I have a few confessions that I would like to share.
I Don’t Crave Vegetables!
I’m sure there are some who would be surprised to hear this, but I don’t crave vegetables or a salad. I will say that I try to eat a salad every day regardless if it’s for lunch or a side at dinner. If I make a salad, leafy greens don’t make up more than 50% of my salad. I like to include other ingredients with more flavor like chicken, fruits, beans, cheeses or other vegetables. Sometimes, if the meat has so much flavor on it, I don’t need to add much dressing, which makes it even healthier.
I Despise Spring Mix!
I’m not sure who invented this combination of leaves, but I feel like someone just went outside and weeded their yard and came back and threw it in a salad bowl. I figured that’s why they called it Spring Mix: they did some spring weeding and made a salad mix out of it.
Most other greens like lettuce and spinach are not that flavorful either. If they were, we wouldn’t need dressing. No one would ever eat these greens by themselves. I don’t feel guilty about this because I think there are other vegetables that provide more nutritional punch.
One of the biggest benefits of vegetables is fiber. Unlike other foods, fiber doesn’t break down, so it acts as a brush that cleans out your digestive system. And since it doesn’t break down, it also fills you up so you don’t eat as much. If you shake most leaves like spring mix, iceberg or romaine in a container, the leaves basically disappear while the other toppings stay intact. This is basically what happens in your stomach. So, if you think about it, most greens are not providing much fiber, along with little nutrients, or flavor for that matter. That’s why when I eat a salad, I make sure there’s plenty of other ingredients. This includes other vegetables that have just as many nutrients and more fiber like tomatoes, edamame, and beans.
If I do make a salad, I prefer making it with arugula. It has more flavor than other leaves and it’s more nutritious than most. I like it so much, that it’s almost good enough to eat without dressing or toppings. Among many other nutrients that it provides, arugula is high in nitrates, which have shown to lower blood pressure.
One of my favorite salads is a Greek salad. Not does it have all of my favorite ingredients like olives, tomatoes and feta, it doesn’t have any leafy greens!
Salads Never Fill Me Up!
Don’t you hate it when you try eating healthy by having a salad for lunch or dinner and you’re hungry an hour or two later? That’s because salad is 96% water. Also, since there’s not as much fiber, it doesn’t fill you up and doesn’t keep you satisfied as long. Like I mentioned before, I make sure the leafy portion is not the majority ingredient. This is also why I eat four meals a day. I also like to “chunky” salads. Just like chunky soup fills me up better than broth, salads with chunky ingredients are more fulfilling.
I Hate Cooked Vegetables!
Want to ruin a perfectly good vegetable? Cook it! I know many of you don’t agree, but I feel like cooking a vegetable just washes away all of the flavor, nutrients and texture. Instead of eating a nice crisp and flavorful raw vegetable, you’re eating a bland and soggy food. Of course, there are some exceptions like corn and potatoes where you need to cook it. But the vast majority of vegetables taste better raw. I LOVE, LOVE eating peas in a pod. One of my favorite memories as a kid was venturing out to the family garden and picking pea pods and pealing them apart to eat the peas inside. I ate them right there in the garden because I couldn’t wait to taste their sweetness. I would eat one hundred of them if I could. I also enjoy eating raw carrots. They’re sweet and crunchy with a nice flavor. Cook it and it becomes one of my worst enemies.
Phew! I’m glad I got that off of my chest.
As much as I don’t crave vegetables or a salad, they are an important part of staying healthy. They provide nutrition and fiber that you can’t find in many other foods and they have zero fat. In my next post, I’ll explain how I get them into my diet.