Salad Days

You may have noticed that most of my salad recipes are vegetarian, with a good many of them tipping the vegan scale. There’s a good reason for this! Consumption of saturated fat (found in meat and dairy products) is responsible for all sorts of ailments, such as heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, etc. New research published in the Archives of Ophthalmology has added another disease to the list - “age-related” macular degeneration (AMD).

This disease is the leading cause of vision loss in Americans over 60. It involves cell death in the macula of the eye, which has a high density of cone cells and is responsible for central vision.

Scientists investigated the relationship between fat intake and the presence of intermediate AMD four to seven years later in more than 1700 women and found that some fats may benefit eye health while others may be damaging. Saturated fats showed the greatest association with AMD – 60% increased odds of AMD in women who consumed the greatest amounts. Monounsaturated fats, which are present in nuts, seeds, and avocados, were associated with a lower prevalence of the disease.

So, next time you’re contemplating what to put on your salad - bacon or walnuts...sliced egg or avocado - let your eyes be your guide to picking healthful, plant-based fats instead of animal fats.

Read the full study: Parekh N et al. Association Between Dietary Fat Intake and Age-Related Macular Degeneration in the Carotenoids in Age-Related Eye Disease Study (CAREDS). An Ancillary Study of the Women’s Health Initiative. Arch Ophthalmol. 2009;127(11):1483-1493.

If I were stranded on a desert island and could only have one kind of salad ever again, it would be a chopped salad. The best ones are lively, thoughtfully chosen compositions of lettuce, vegetables, and sometimes fruit cut into bite-sized pieces, with supporting players like nuts and cheese. Tonight, Nick and I are bringing one of our favorites to a potluck birthday party - a pear and cranberry version - perfect for the fall.

Pear & Cranberry Chopped Salad
Serves 4 to 6

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 T olive oil
3 T cider vinegar
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 pear, cored and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1/2 small red onion, minced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 romaine heart, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 ounces blue cheese
1/2 cup pistachios

Whisk oil and vinegar together in large bowl. Add cucumber, bell pepper, pear, onion and cranberries. Toss and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes to blend flavors. Add romaine, blue cheese, and pistachios. Toss to combine.

Today’s salad is inspired by all of the crisp, fragrant Washington apples that finally made their way into grocery stores around here. Pick your favorite variety and go to town!

Apple-Edamame Salad
Serves 1-2

Salad greens
1/2 apple, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/3 - 1/2 cup frozen edamame (thaw 1 minute in microwave)
1/2 - 1 oz walnuts, chopped
1-2 Tbsp raisins
1 Tbsp flavored vinegar

Pack as many salad greens into a bowl as will fit. Add everything else on top.

Nutritional Wisdom

You’ll notice that many of my salad recipes do not include oil or have very little of it in the dressings. Many people think oil is good for them, particularly olive oil. I’d like to counter this notion with a few thoughts…

To be a food, something must be able to support healthy life and be of some benefit. The best foods for our bodies have the highest ratio of nutrients (vitamins and minerals) to calories. Junk food, on the other hand, is a food that is high in calories (and/or fat, sugar, salt) and has little, if any, nutrient value.

Oil is a highly refined processed and extracted “product”. It has no protein or essential amino acids (which we need), it has no carbohydrates (which we need), it has no fiber (which we need), it has no minerals (which we need) and has virtually no vitamins (which we need) except for a small amount of Vit E and some phytosterols. Worse yet, most oils have high ratios of omega 6 (which most of us need to lower) to omega 3 (which most of need more of). So, basically you are getting lots of calories (oils has almost 2.5 x more calorie per TB than sugar), lots of omega 6s, some saturated fat (depending on the oil), and virtually no nutrients. By definition, oil is more junk than food.

Some people have pointed out to me that studies show olive oil is healthy. This is simply untrue. Those studies compare vegetable oils, like olive oil, to the fats in meat. Olive oil, in these studies, might be slightly better than the saturated fat in meat but it is far from a healthy food.

We should treat oil for what it really is. Junk. Pure and simple. Treat it like the junk food it really is and consume it sparingly.

I’m not advocating eliminating fat. We certainly need it for a properly functioning body. We should focus our consumption of fat, however, on healthy fats - those found in food in their natural state, such as whole seeds, nuts, avocados, etc.