Step 1: Design a colorful salad packed with dark greens — like spinach, kale, and chicory, which tend to have the highest dose of phytochemicals — and add other nutrient-dense veggies like carrots, broccoli, tomatoes.
Step 2: Once you’ve put together this nutrient-dense salad, trick is not to make it a high-fat one by adding fatty extras like croutons and cheese, or by drenching it with high-fat dressing.
Bonnie Liebman, MS, nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest puts regular salad dressing in the same category as other fat-filled “extras” like mayonnaise, cream cheese and butter. If you aren’t convinced, consider these numbers:
- 2 tablespoons of Wishbone Chunky Blue Cheese has 160 calories and 17 grams of fat.
- 2 tablespoons of Hidden Valley Ranch contains has 140 calories and 14 grams of fat.
Next time you’re ordering a salad, ask for your dressing on the side so you can control how much goes on