Lifestyle
Summertime Salads and the Eating is Easy!
By
Jun 7, 2009 - 12:26:58 AM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Summertime is the best time to make salads the base of a meal! Summer is beginning with its hot weather, less formal cooking, and less fuss in the kitchen. And it's a great time for us to make our eating easy. Summer means more outdoor activities, long weekends, vacations and barbeques with extra drinking. But while we're having fun, many of us do worry about packing the pounds on just when our clothing bares more of us. I do believe however, that summertime eating can be fun, creative, filling and healthy all at the same time. It can be all this while we keep those pounds off, with my Summertime Salads and the Eating is Easy series! I credit my "entree" portion salads as one of my most important weight loss tools that has made a huge difference in my weight and indeed, they has become my year round meal staple.

No other time can we make eating as easy as during the summer, if we become creative with our salads. The choices for salads are almost endless and what I like best is that they can fill us up without filling us out. Why? Here are a few of my favorite reasons to enjoy salads this summer as a way of eating, besides it forms the foundation of recipes for my upcoming book "It's Not a Diet, It's Creative Eating"!

Salads Give us Freedom. They can be made with raw or cooked foods, hot or cold foods or a combination of both; we can use leftovers too!

Salads are Bottomless. They can made with a huge amount of salad greens and vegetables, which are filling (high volume), take a long time to eat and can be much lower in calories than traditional meals (we do need to be mindful of the calories in our salad dressing and the fat used in foods, such as mayo).

Salads are "nutrient dense." This means that they are packed with vitamins, minerals, and disease fighting phytochemicals. Let's not forget about the high amount of fiber that they offer too, which is a weight loss tool by itself.

Salads Feed our Senses. Remember my " Put More Color in Our Life" tip? Lot's of color in salads mean diversity of foods and nutrients, and tastes. Salads can "Feed our Senses" (plugging my tips here!) with a variety of colors and textures and through their arrangement and presentation as well!

Salads Give us Variety. They can be made with an endless variety of vegetables, so if we're creative we can avoid boredom even when they become part of our regular routine. We can go seasonal too, all year long with fresh produce.

Salad Making can be Fun. Salad making can be fun, creative, tasty and let's not forget they can help us to maintain our weight (oh such vanity). I personally use salads as my base for many entree meals year round, while I enjoy other more fattening foods in-between or on the side without guilt.

Salads are a great way to eat more like a vegetarian without becoming one. We can use different types of greens, vegetables, and even fruits. We can add in grilled foods such as grilled chicken, grilled veggies, and grilled seafood. We can eat a salad as our appetizer or main course or choose both at a restaurant as an alternative to the high calorie appetizer followed by a full entree combo. I like to recommend a salad a day for health and weight loss. Lastly, while I choose to drizzle 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil on my salads, we can also explore the varieties of healthy low fat, low calorie salad dressings to enhance their taste.

Starting next week as I have done previously, every Monday I will post a different salad on my website. Some will be my own concoction, and some I will adapt from other varying sources. Hope you'll take a look.

So, if we're looking for easy, nutrient dense, healthy, filling low calorie meals, let's start our adventure with "Summertime Salads and the Eating is Easy".

Salad anyone?

June M. Lay M.S.
June Fit
Want to recommend my weekly tips to friends, relatives or anyone interested in improving their health & fitness? click here or email me at June@Junefit.com.

Source for info once again on grilling and health: American Institute for Cancer Research.

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