The Hindu Business Line : Dieting made interesting

Salads no longer consist of just onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. Take that plunge, and experiment with a variety of exotic and unconventional ingredients, creating nutritious, yet scrumptious salads.

Had you been on a dieting spree, say some 10 years ago, and had to live on salads, it would have certainly meant punishing yourself. Living on slices of cucumber, carrots, onions and tomato slices would have been virtually killing.

But salads today, are no longer just tomatoes, onions and cucumbers topped with a bland, boring dressing. Today you can let your imagination run wild while making salads from exotic vegetables such as broccoli, baby corn and asparagus, adding to them fruits and herbs, and even proteins such as rajma and channa, to make your salad interesting and wholesome. If you are a non-vegetarian, you can also toss in pieces of grilled chicken or fish into your salad.

With health and fitness awareness reaching an all-time high, salads form an important part of the diet chart of today's discerning individual. A salad counter has practically become a norm at a buffet meal in any hotel.

"Dieting has to be made a nice and pleasant experience," says Jyotsna Radja, Consultant Nutritionist, Apollo Diet and Health Clinic, Chennai.

And salads are, definitely, the most nutritive form of diet food as they contain nutrition in nature's purest form.

Agreeing with Radja, V.K. Chandrasekaran, Executive Chef, Taj Coromandel, Chennai, says that salads are catching up as a low-calorie meal option. "Salads are high in fibres and low in calories and fat, and are therefore a good and wholesome meal option for diet freaks," he says.

Apart from vegetables, one can even add fruits such as litchis or papayas to make the salads more interesting. You have the additional option of adding some cottage cheese or even tofu.

However, Chef Chandrasekaran also points out that a calorie conscious person has to be careful about the dressing, if he/she wishes to have a salad meal. "A Thousand Island dressing or Vinaigrette is extremely fattening. A diet conscious person should instead opt for a simple lemon or a honey dressing which is low in calories."

He says that one can make low calorie salad dressings even with fruit juices such as orange and pineapple juice or even yogurt blended with some herbs.

Jyotsna says that in order to make salads a complete meal, one can even add carbohydrates in the form of brown rice or proteins in the form of channa or rajma. "The body requires its share of carbohydrates and proteins and by adding these ingredients one can have a nice healthy meal without any fat." Add to the salad meal, a soup as a starter and it becomes much more wholesome, she says.

However, she points out that one cannot have just salads for all the meals, as this can not only be boring but it is also not the best of things to do from a nutritional point of view. "The body of an average individual needs 60 per cent calories from carbohydrates and less that 30 per cent fat. Therefore, it is essential to have a balanced diet instead of just surviving on salads."

A balanced meal would consist of fruits, fruit juices and vegetables, carbohydrates in the form of chapattis or rice, dal in the form of proteins and so on. "And all these can be made oil-free and at the same time interesting. You could, for instance, make a grilled vegetable dish by marinating the vegetables in vinegar or even make a paneer dish with lot of tomatoes and onions, with just a drop of oil. You could therefore, have salads for just one meal," she adds.

Chef Chandrasekaran says, "Salads should ideally be had for lunch. As they contains high-fibre vegetables, it will be difficult to digest salads when consumed for dinner, unless you make it a point to go for a walk after dinner."

Jyotsna warns that a starvation diet or just a salad diet is not an answer for losing weight. "A person has to eat according to his/her metabolic rate. Dieting has to be made an enjoyable experience and one should ask his/her nutritionist to prescribe an interesting diet as per the person's metabolism rate. In fact, a starvation diet makes an individual more prone to adding the weight he/she has shed," she says.

The secret of good health as well as a glowing complexion and a vibrant look is a balanced diet complemented with regular exercise to tone up the body.

Picture by Shaju John

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