Salad Savvy

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Dec, 2004

Will you walk away from the table with fewer calories if you start your meal with a salad? It depends on the salad.

Researchers had 42 women eat as much pasta as they wanted for lunch, with or without one of several salads before the pasta. The women ate 12 percent fewer calories when they were given a large salad (3 cups) with low calorie density (veggies plus fat-free dressing and light cheese) than when they ate pasta alone.

Even after a small (1 1/2-cup) salad, they ate seven percent fewer calories than when they were offered pasta alone.

However, when the women ate either a large or small calorie-dense salad (with regular dressing and cheese), they ended up consuming more calories than when they ate only pasta.

What to do: Start dinner with a salad that's mostly vegetables. If you aren't a fan of fat-free dressing, try reduced-fat (as little as possible) and skip the cheese, croutons, Chinese noodles, and other calorie-dense salad trimmings.

J. Amer. Diet. Assoc. 104: 1570, 2004.