Fats Help Keep Your Salad Healthy

I love salad. But not your regular 3 leafs of spinach and a slice of cucumber type of salad. Yes, my salad has lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers and all the "good vegetables", but I top my salad with mixed nuts and crumbled feta cheese. And instead of regular dressing, I add an olive oil/balsamic vinegar mixture. Think that adding all these fats to your salad cancels its benefits?

Many dieters think losing weight means you have to cut corners (which is true) by cutting out fatty foods like salad dressing (which is not true). While it’s a fact that when you leave off fatty salad dressings you may be reducing the total number of calories in your meal, you’re also reducing the total number of carotenoids you absorb from the phytochemical-rich assortment of veggies in your salad.

Carotenoids are a class of pigments found in vegetables. They make carrots orange, green peppers green and tomatoes red, and they also act as powerful antioxidants. These healthy compounds, however, are fat-soluble, meaning they need to be digested in the presence of fats in order to cross the intestinal wall and be absorbed into the body. That means if you’re not eating some amount of fat with your salads, whether from the dressing, shredded cheeses, avocado, or other source, you won’t be able to benefit from the all the fat-soluble nutrients, carotenoids and antioxidants found in the vegetables. How much fat do you need then? Research shows that you need to eat at least 6 grams of fat along with your meal in order to absorb these healthy, fat-soluble compounds. Check the label of your favorite salad dressings and opt for one that has a healthy amount of unsaturated fats, like an olive-oil based dressing. Or just add a quarter of an avocado to your salad for 7 grams of fat, 6 of which are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.