Is Your Salad Making You Fat?

Photo Credit: morgueFile

Salads aren't always healthy.

Sure a bed of greens and chopped vegetables are packed with vitamins and minerals. But, have you ever taken a closer look at all those salad toppings you pile on?

Beware of These 4 Calorie-Heavy Salad Toppings

1. Croutons: These crispy chunks of dried bread add minimal nutrition and lots of calories to your salad. Instead try adding a sprinkle of equally crunchy almonds, walnuts or sunflower seeds to add texture to the salad.
2. Dressing: A drizzle of ranch or dollop of blue cheese dressing is just fine. But when your salad bowl looks like soup, you're simply using too much dressing. Experiment with non-creamy dressings like flavored vinaigrettes if you like a lot of extra added flavor.
3. Cheese: I was shocked when I found out a serving of cheese is the size of two dice. Really? That's tiny! It's easy to sprinkle up to 200 calories and a day's worth of sodium on an entree-size salad without much thought. If you can't part with this dairy topping, opt for lower-sodium cheeses such as whole-milk mozzarella, sliced Swiss and crumbly goat cheese.
4. Dried Fruit: Skip the raisins, dried cherries and dried cranberries preserved with extra sugar. Use fresh whole fruits like sliced grapes, strawberries or pears instead. You'll use less (since the chunks are bigger) and consume fewer calories.

The takeaway? Enjoy anything you want on your salad, but in moderation. If you're going to use half a bottle of dressing or a cup of dried fruit, you might as well skip the salad altogether and just order pizza.

So, what healthy salad toppings do you enjoy?

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy!

Angela Tague
Whole Foods Living

Making a Date with Dried Dates

I love dried fruits for snacking.

Dried dates. Image Credit: Freeimages

One that I never quite reach for often enough is dates.  The oversize raisin-looking fruit hails from palm trees, so it's not exactly fresh and plentiful in land-locked Iowa. I've only eaten dried, wrinkly dates.

I keep hearing about fresh dates stuffed with mixtures of nuts and candied fruits. They sound delicious!

Have you ever eaten dates? How do you enjoy them?

Until Next Time,
Choose Healthy!

Angela Tague
Whole Foods Living

Note: Today's post will be my last submission for the 2014 Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. I've had multiple blog subscribers comment that I'm posting too often (daily) and have chosen to unsubscribe from my blog. I'm also learning that when I reciprocate comments on blogs integrated with Google+, the multiple "comment posts" on my G+ page appear spammy. I write for my readers, and am choosing to respect their feedback. I will resume publishing on my regular Monday schedule on April 14th. Thanks for visiting!