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Healthy Vegetarian Salads

Submitted by Stella Morgan on December 7, 2009

Digestive health is a major concern especially when one considers the kind of lifestyle, bad habits and fast food that has become the norm these days. With ready to eat meals and fizzy drinks, no one gives a second thought to the possible damage to one’s body. It’s usually only when one’s body marks its protests with stomach infections or other problems that we slow down and reconsider our daily choices. Even at this point, it’s amazing how people complicate the matter by reaching for pills without making any changes with regards to eating habits and choices.

The kind of food groups best suited for tackling those annoying digestive problems, and even preempting them, are those that include fiber.

Fiber and water, these two items alone, can ease so many digestive difficulties. The benefits of roughage can be combined from various forms of food to make a humble salad. A basic salad includes green leafy vegetables (one of the best kinds of vegetables) and basic fruits and vegetables such as simple tomatoes and cucumbers.

When one thinks of a healthy salad, one typically pictures those freshly cut green salads. We’re not talking about those laden with oily meats or oodles of mayonnaise. Green salads will give you those much needed vitamins and minerals if you make them properly with vegetables and fruits.

The fiber you get from legumes and other lentils makes them a great addition to salads. The best part about such high fiber foods, like salad leaves, is that while they might be bulky, they have little calorific value. Ground flaxseed is one good way to dress that salad. Yogurt also is another great way to spice up that salad and it has a number of benefits for your stomach.

The ones with live-cultures are the ones you should chose to fight infections and aid digestion. For the same reason, raw cultured vegetables are great to make salads with. As you’ve probably realized by now, in addition to salad content, salad dressing is equally important. While vinegar isn’t exactly known for its nutritional value it might hold some great benefits for digestive health. It has an important role to play in hoe our body soaks up those vital minerals from food consumed. It might even help when it comes to type 2 diabetes. Thus, it could be used as a tangy topping for that salad. One such great dressing is apple cider vinegar.