Salads can help you shed that extra flab but it also depends on what you are putting into it. Though salads are important in making sure you get the essential vitamins and nutrients, wrong ingredients can make it go bad.
So we bring to you five things that you shouldn't add to your salad:
Creamy dressings
One of the most common mistakes people do while having salad is to go for creamy dressings such as Ceasar, Ranch and others. They undoubtedly make your salad tasty but makes it unhealthy too.
According to Havard Health Publishing, a registered dietitian Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital said: "I have some clients who say they'll only eat salad if they can use dressing. That can add a lot of calories, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat."
The whole idea of having a healthy diet goes in vain with this kind of creamy dressings.
Crispy chicken or fried shrimp
Do you add crispy chicken, fried tofu or coconut shrimp to your salad? It's a big no-no. It makes your salad not so diet-friendly. However, if you really want to add protein to your salad, it's better to go for grilled chicken, boiled eggs, steamed tofu or canned tuna.
Glazed nuts
Nuts are healthy fats and it's good to have them in your diet but, not the ones glazed with sugar. You may find them in salads when you order in restaurants. However, do not add them to your daily salad topping.
Keep your salad healthy and save on calories by sticking on to dry-roasted nuts. However, add nuts as a light topping, do not overdo it.
Fat-free dressings
If you think, instead of normal salad dressing you would go for 'fat-free dressings' because it's healthy, it's actually not. They are actually high in salt and sugar content. In fact, two tablespoons of the fat-free ranch dressing have between 270 to 380 milligrams (mg) of sodium and two to three grams (g) of sugar. You can instead go for apple vinegar or fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
Dried fruits
Adding dried raisins, apricots and other fruits to your salad is a 'sin'. Yes, almost it is because they are loaded with sugar and have about 100 calories in a quarter cup. Next time, you think of having a healthy salad, try not to add any dried fruits to it.
