Summer is all about cooking light and healthy. We no longer need to thrive off of the comfort food that we long for in the cold days of winter. Spinach salad with pistachio chicken, layered fruit salad, feta and slow roasted tomato salad with French green beans … need we say more? Although it all sounds delicious and extremely tempting, be careful of what you put on top. Choosing the wrong dressing can lead these wholesome salads down the wrong path. But then again, choosing the fat-free kind is just as bad.
A study published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research revealed that consuming dressing with fat, at least the right kind of fat could help you absorb all of the nutrients that your salad has to offer.
Dietary fat and specific fat-soluble vitamins go hand in hand. If you consume both at the same time, it is much easier for you body to absorb all of the nutrients and truly benefit from these salad staples. Without fat, your body can do nothing with the carotenoids, an antioxidant found in many vegetables.
Sounds like good news for all of us who love our ranch and blue cheese dressing. But this doesn’t exactly give you the red light to drown those last pieces of spinach in pure joy.
A Purdue University study showed all you really need is 3 grams of monounsaturated fat to do the trick. It is also important that you use dressing with monounsaturated fat. Check the label for ingredients like canola, vegetable, sunflower, or olive oil to make sure you are on the right track.
If you are not a fan of the dressing, try tossing in avocados, nuts or olives to get the same effect. Better yet? If you don’t use dressing, indulge in dessert after your meal and get similar results as well. Dressing or dessert, could it possibly get any better? We didn’t think so either.
– The Alternative Daily