Happy Salad Week!

Any way you spin them, salads are a refreshing and satisfying way to pack more veggies into your diet. If you’d like a fun way to challenge yourself and your family to eat more salad, the last week in July is national salad week. Consider some of these benefits of eating salad regularly ­– and convert those salad non-believers in your life.

• Salads are versatile and can be made in hundreds of different ways to satisfy any taste.
• You can grow it in your backyard! Save money, eat healthy.
• Leafy greens, vegetables and fruits are among the healthiest foods in the world.
• Diets rich in fruits and vegetables provide antioxidants, which can help boost your immune system and keep you healthy.
• Some salad ingredients, such as peas, black beans, broccoli, avocados, spinach and apples contain high amounts of fiber. Diets high in fiber can lower cholesterol and promote a healthy heart.
• Packing a salad for your lunch at work or school saves money.
• Salads generally have fewer calories than other meal options – provided they aren’t drenched in caloric dressing and toppings.
• Salads are portable. Consider using a Mason jar or Tupperware container with built in dressing container.
• Making your own salad dressing saves money and unnecessary consumption of preservatives and artificial ingredients.

If you’re feeling inventive, you can put your chef hat on and create your own seasonal salads and salad dressings based on the charts below from the College of Public Health and Human Science’s Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health . By using foods in season, you'll save even more money. 

I have been continually surprised at the lack of healthy food options for my kids. Luckily, they love salads. Unluckily, salads are rarely offered at school, restaurants, or at friend’s houses. I sometimes feel like I am a kid’s salad warrior (I’m not a warrior of anything!), but I will force this on them even when it’s unpopular. Salads are a healthy way to open conversation about growing food, healthy living, and saving money. They’ll thank me later!
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So grab some veggies and experiment with a salad!