Know your salads

The fabulous blast of warm air and sunshine that we have all been enjoying recently, makes us inclined to move away from the usual sandwich at lunchtime to a fresh salad. Not only are they more summery, but surely a healthier choice too?

Read the label and avoid things you can’t pronounce or wouldn’t expect to find in a salad dressing (anyone for modified starch and lysozyme?).

There’s certainly a much wider choice available these days than there was even five or six years ago: most of the major supermarkets and sandwich shops in the city centre offer at least two or three salads for the lunchtime market, but are they always a healthy option and what should we be looking out for in our take-away salads?

What to look for

- Protein
Good choices are leafy salads with a good source of protein, such as chicken, fish, hummus, feta cheese, beans, etc. This helps to make a salad more substantial and keep you feeling fuller for longer.

- Dressings
Watch out for dressings, which can be full of all sorts of undesirables. Mass-produced salad dressings are often transported long distances and designed with a longer shelf-life in mind so may be full of ingredients that you wouldn’t normally put in a salad dressing. Read the label and avoid things you can’t pronounce or wouldn’t expect to find in a salad dressing (anyone for modified starch and lysozyme?). Beware of dressings with a high water or sugar content too. The best ones come in little pots or sachets so that you can discard them or add just a little.

- Carbs
Carbohydrate-rich salads such as pasta, couscous, rice, etc tend to be stodgy and may make you sleepy. Not great for a productive afternoon’s work. Their dressing tends to be pre-added too (to stop all the starch sticking together) so you may not be able to avoid the undesirables (see above).

- Leaves
Shop-bought salads are often based on iceberg lettuce, as it tends not to wilt as quickly as other leaves so has a longer shelf-life. The down-side is that it is much lower in nutrients than darker green leaves such as Cos, aka Romaine, lettuce. This is higher in most nutrients (except water, sugar and sodium), including twice as much fibre, zinc and vitamins B2 and B3 and nearly five times as much of the antioxidant carotene.

What’s on offer?
There’s quite a variety- from a basic green salad, through to salad meals such as Salad Niçoise and Caesar Salads, to healthy choices such as ‘superfood’ salads. I picked a few at random to look at more closely:

- Marks and Spencer
There’s a big choice at M&S so you should be able to find something to your taste. Particularly good are the ‘salad bowls’ and the small, 150g salad tubs such as the Edamame Soya Bean Salad, which have little pots of dressing that are easy to open and you can add as much or as little as you like. Of the ones I looked at, all the ingredients were things you might find in a kitchen cupboard but some of the dressings had added sugar.

- Prêt-á-Manger
Some tasty looking salads and Prêt say that almost all of their products are made fresh and avoid ‘obscure chemical additives and preservatives’ but their nutritional breakdown doesn’t include the dressing so do check the label.

- McDonalds
A limited choice and several ingredients are unpronounceable. This is the ingredient list for the Low-fat Caesar Dressing: Water, Spirit Vinegar, Sugar, Dried Medium Hard Cheeses (5%) (contains Milk, Salt, Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Vegetarian Rennet, Lysozyme), Natural Yoghurt, Stabiliser (contains Modified Starch, Whey Protein Concentrate, Pectin, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Alginate, Guar Gum), Salt, Soya Bean Oil, Worcester Sauce (Malt Vinegar, Molasses, Water, Onion, Salt, Tamarinds, Spices, Garlic, Lemon Juice), Garlic, Black Pepper, Colours (Titanium Dioxide, Caramel), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate), Oregano, Onion Powder, Natural Rosemary Extract, Citric Acid.

Oh, and the Low-fat Balsamic Dressing is 9 per cent sugar- that’s more sugar than olive oil.

- Philpotts
Philpotts will mix the salad freshly for you so you can omit anything you don’t want. I’d go for the mixed leaves base and something like poached salmon or their Greek salad.

- Eat
A small but brightly coloured and imaginative range. Eat also make their salads in-house and provide their dressings in little pots so that you can take or leave them.

- Or you can DIY
With a little pre-planning, you can save money, avoid lengthy queues and the need to scour labels, by making your own tasty salad. For maximum nutritional value, choose dark green or red leaves and add colour with chopped peppers, grated carrot, radishes and even pieces of fresh fruit, such as peaches or kiwi fruit. Add some good quality protein (see above), sprinkle with some sunflower seeds and mix your own dressing from balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil (take it to work in a separate pot from the salad and mix in just before eating to stop your leaves going soggy). Find a sunny spot and relax and enjoy.

The advice given here is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your GP if you are concerned about your health.

Clare Jones, BA(Hons), Dip ION, mBANT
Nutritional Therapy 07985 166606.

If you would like to make an appointment for a personal nutrition consultation with Clare, please contact her on the above number or visit Clare’s website: clarejones-nutrition.co.uk