We have a running discussion in our house about the value of salad. My feeling is that it just isn't very healthy.
We're talking about lettuce. We're not talking about pasta salad, three bean salad, Greek salad, etc. Just lettuce.
To most people, a salad is lettuce (and, of course, salad dressing). Sometimes there will be additions like tomatoes, croutons or some other vegetable but for the most part, it's just lettuce... and dressing.
One big heaping bowl of lettuce looks impressive but you are lucky to get more than an ounce or two by weight of lettuce. What nutrition is in two ounces of lettuce? Not much. About 10 calories from carbohydrates and negligible amounts of protein... no fat. Less than 1% of RDA of vitamins.
Then you add salad dressing.
Two tablespoons (standard serving size) of salad dressing contains 150 to 500 calories. Most of this is from fat. If it's a cheese or milk/cream based dressing, this is bad fat. If it's olive oil, it's good fat. Most salad dressings also have 300 to 500 mg sodium in a serving. This is as much as a third of your daily allowance for sodium.
The calories and sodium from the dressing overwhelm any nutritional benefit from the lettuce.
It's just not worth it.
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