Welcome to the Eat This Not That Podcast, brought to you by Bob's Red Mill. I'm John Hammond, and this is Megan Murphy. Hi, everyone. In this episode, we're tackling something that most of us, you know, go to or order up when we're trying to be, you know, quote unquote, you see my air quotes here, healthy. And that's salads, right? Actually, you know, what you put on top of your salad to be more specific because that's where things can get a little dicey.

Yeah, you know, what you put on top of your salad to be more specific,

because that's where things can get a little dicey. Yeah, you could really ruin what you would think

would be a healthy, healthy dish with tons of excess stuff on top that you don't need.

And I love salads. I should say I've grown to love salads, right? I haven't always loved salads.

But over the last couple of years, as I've pushed myself to get more fruits and vegetables in my diet, it's interesting because I actually, you know, if I have a couple bad days of eating, I actually crave a salad. Yeah, absolutely. My body has changed my cravings where before you used to crave that burger or that

sweets. Like I literally, like if I go a couple days, I'm like, I need vegetables. I need like like raw, clean, crisp, like flavorful vegetables and I've got to get them now. But then, you know, this is where it gets dicey where you think you're, there's, there's such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when it comes to salads. And you can kind of load them up a little bit too much. And, you know, just because you have this great salad base doesn't mean you can get away with kind of, you know, some of the stuff that you put on at that, you know is probably not that great, but you're like, it's a salad, right? Totally. Well, I'm very much

big on proportions as well. That's why I like to make salads at home. Like, I don't like if I get them out, and it's mostly lettuce with a few scarce toppings. I want all the toppings and just a little bit of lettuce. So you have to make sure that the toppings and the dressing what you're putting on it actually makes sense and makes it a healthy meal. And, you know, and that's the thing.

It's like when you've loaded up a plate of fresh greens and some veggies, you know, not a couple pieces of lettuce like apparently you do, right? You want to kind of like actually fill it up with the greens. You know, it's like, it's like the, you know, he'd the advice of Coco Chanel, right? So it's like, before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off. Like, before you plate that salad, look at all the ingredients that you plan on putting in that salad and probably push a couple to the side. And then start with that and see if you've got enough, right? Enough to fill you up. And we're going to highlight some of those

things that are best left off your salad, the unnecessary topping, the ingredients that do nothing

but add calories and fat. So you can eat your salad regret free. Okay. And for the record, I do like

lettuce, but you know, I like delicious, tasty toppings as well. So it's all about proportion.

If they're the right toppings, it's totally fine, right?

So one of the biggest no-noes when it comes to salads is the creamy dressing. I mean, this may be an

obvious one, but ranch, blue cheese, and other creamy dressings are usually crazy high in calories

and fat and can be loaded with unhealthy additives. So if you're craving that rich, creamy texture without the calorie bomb, just try

blending up some balsamic vinegar with a really ripe avocado.

You'll add heart-healthy fats instead of empty calories.

Have you ever done this?

I've never done this, but I've eaten salads with it on there.

And I actually just, I to visit my my parents this

weekend and there's a new vegetarian restaurant that opened up in their little town so I stopped

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