Salads In The Diet
September 14th, 2008 by Anon
Salads are often considered to be a dish of little importance; that is, something that is added to a meal. While this is the case with meals composed of a sufficient variety of foods, salads have a definite place in majority of households. Often there is a tendency to limit green vegetables or fresh fruits in the diet, but if the members of a family are to be fed an ideal diet it is extremely important that some of them are included in each day’s meals.
The most effective and appetizing way to include them in a meal is the serving of salads. One who gives much attention to the artistic side of the serving of food will often use a salad to carry out a color scheme in the meal. This is, of course, the least valuable use that salads have, but it is a point that should not be overlooked. The chief purpose of salads in a meal is to provide something that the rest of the foods served in the meal lack.
Although salads, through their variety, offer an opportunity to vary meals, it requires a little attention in selecting them if a properly balanced meal is to be served. Salads that are high in food value or contain ingredients similar to those found in the other dishes served in the meal, should be avoided with dinners or with other heavy meals. For instance, a fish or a meat salad should not be served with a dinner, for it would supply a quantity of protein to a meal that is already sufficiently high in this food substance because of the fact that meat also is included.
Such a salad, however, has a place in a very light luncheon or supper, for it helps to balance such a meal. The best salad to be served with a dinner that contains a number of heavy dishes is a vegetable salad, if enough vegetables are not already included, or a fruit salad, if the dessert does not consist of fruit. In case a fruit salad is selected, it is often made to serve for both the salad and the dessert course.
If the meal is a light one and the salad is to be served as the principal dish, it should be sufficiently heavy and contain enough food value to serve the purpose for which it is intended. On the other hand when the meal is a heavy one it is always better to chose a lighter salad.
For instance, with meat or fish as the main course of the meal, a fish, egg, or cheese salad would obviously be the wrong thing to serve. Instead, a light salad of vegetables or fruits should be selected for such a meal. It should be remembered that if the other dishes of a meal contain sufficient food value to make the meal properly nourishing, a salad containing a rich dressing will provide more than a sufficient supply of calories and consequently should be avoided.
Another point that should not be neglected in selecting a salad is that it should be in contrast to the rest of the meal as far as flavor is concerned. While several foods acid in flavor do not necessarily unbalance a meal so far as food substances and food value are concerned, they provide too much of the same flavor to be agreeable to most persons.
For instance, if the meal contains an acid soup, such as tomato, and a vegetable with a sour dressing, such as beets, then a salad that is also acid will be likely to add more of a sour flavor than the majority of persons desire.
, excellent book, must have if you are into grilling), wild salmon is great to grill whole, and easier to so than farmed salmon, because it tends to be thinner, easier to cook through without getting dried out on the edges. 
After the Secret Guide to Making Any Food Calorie-Free unearthed a wealth of hitherto-unknown “facts” about calories from Diet Blog’s expert readers (eg. “There are no calories if you eat while walking”) I thought we could do with learning how to make anything count as exercise.
I bet you’ve heard the groan-worthy pun that goes “I’m on a seafood diet … I see food and I eat it!” But, jokes aside, seafood is one of the best sources of protein, essential oils (fatty acids), and health-boosting nutrients. Are you eating enough?
