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The Advantages of Vegetable Salads

Vegetable salads provide many sensory pleasures: the bright colors of tomatoes, carrots and peppers; the sound of a crisp green bean snapping; and the earthy aroma of fresh mushrooms. Salads also provide many nutritional benefits for your body.

  1. Food Pyramid

    • The USDA food pyramid recommends that adults eat 2 1/2 to 3 cups of vegetables daily. Colorful tossed salads are an easy way to make vegetables appealing, so you're more likely to eat enough of them.

    Weight Loss

    • Filling up on fresh, low-calorie vegetables in salad can prevent you from eating higher-calorie foods instead. That means ingesting fewer calories overall, which equals weight loss.

    Fiber

    • According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, "Dietary fiber from vegetables...helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and may lower risk of heart disease." Vegetable salads often contain such fiber-rich foods as carrots, spinach and peppers.

    Antioxidants

    • Beta-carotene, lutein, lycopene and vitamin C are antioxidants that are commonly found in salad vegetables. While there is no definitive answer yet on whether antioxidants can prevent cancer or other diseases, the National Cancer Institute supports research in this area.

    Warnings

    • You may end up doing more harm than good to your body if you load up your salad with creamy dressings or high-calorie toppings such as bacon, cheese or croutons. While these additions can make salad even more delicious, they are loaded with fat and calories, which can sabotage a weight-loss or heart-healthy eating plan.

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