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Is Your Salad Making You Tired?

Is Your Salad Making You Tired by Deborah Enos, Keynote Speaker and AuthorDon’t worry. This isn’t going to be one of those posts where you learn that something you thought was indisputably healthy is suddenly bad for you.

Vegetables are still awesome.

BUT, they might be making you tired. Okay, here it goes….

If you ONLY eat vegetables without any fat, your energy will last for less than an hour, and you’ll find yourself craving sugar to help regain your focus and concentration. Fat helps the body absorb all of those amazing nutrients from your vegetables.

So, here are my favorite combinations to ensure you’re getting fat along with your fiber-filled vegetables.

1. Add a hard boiled egg, beans or lean chicken or tuna to your salad. The extra protein and fat will double the amount of energy you will get from your meal. The small amount of fat will help you to absorb more nutrients from your veggies.

2. Dip vegetables in hummus. Hummus is made with tahini, which is a sesame butter, and it’s a great source of healthy fat. Hummus is also rich in protein (from the both the chickpeas and tahini).

3. Add an avocado to your salad. Avocados are one of my favorite sources of healthy fat, the monounsaturated kind, and an amazing source of fiber and potassium. Monounsaturated fat helps reduce bad cholesterol and helps lower your risk of stroke and heart disease.

4. When all else fails, grab the full fat salad dressing. In a pinch, full fat salad dressing will do the trick. It’s my least favorite option because it’s the only one that is processed, but the fat contained in the dressing will help your body absorb those great nutrients from your veggies, and that’s what counts. Just watch out for the sugar content. Processed salad dressings can have an insane amount of sugar, which will spike your blood sugar levels and eventually cause your energy to surge and crash (yeah, it’s worse than having veggies without the fat).

My favorite dressing? Yup, you guessed it, vinegar & oil. Keep in mind that with any full fat dressing, a TABLESPOON is the appropriate serving size. Not enough for you? Add a squeeze of lemon juice and that will help to spread the dressing around to all the veggies.

2 Comments
  • Jen
    Posted at 11:04h, 22 May Reply

    Great advice here! Any thoughts on what type of healthy fat I should add to my morning smoothie, which consists of kale, berries, 1/2 banana and protein powder?

  • Valorie Hoskins
    Posted at 12:25h, 22 May Reply

    Hi Deb! Lon and I saw you on Neil Cavutto, you were great! It was wonderful to see you. Congrats on all your success.
    I love your emails, and all your encouragement. Thank You!
    Always, Valorie

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