A big, fresh, colorful salad is a perfect meal or side dish for your picnic or bbq during the heat of the summer, but are we getting all the nutrition out of our salads that we think we are? Most salads are full of a variety of greens and mixed with an assortment of veggies such as red, green or yellow peppers, carrots, red cabbage and the more color we add the prettier and tastier our salads are - but are they more nutritious too? In short, yes, the more color we add to our meals means we are eating more carotenoids, a fat-soluble vitamin shown to be a powerful antioxidant and helpful at reducing inflammation, and they're in all colorful foods from blueberries to beets. However, without a source of fat eaten together with these veggies, the absorption of carotenoids into our body is much lower than it could be, meaning those beautiful salads may not be as healthful as we think. Although most salads are topped with a variety of oil-based salad dressings, more people are choosing "low-fat" or "fat-free" dressings, inadvertently removing the important element that boosts the nutrition of salads and veggies on our tables.
Recently, a group of researchers from Purdue University investigated the effects of adding whole cooked eggs to raw mixed-vegetable salads and whether the addition of this whole food improved the absorption of these important vitamins. With a group of 16 male participants, each consumed the same salad with either no eggs, 1.5 eggs or 3 eggs and tested the absorbability of a variety of carotenoids within a 10 hour period. Their research found that consuming 3 eggs with the salad increased lutein and zeaxanthin by 4.5 fold and other carotenoids, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene and lycopene, by 3.8 fold over the meal with no eggs.
Why eggs you may be wondering? The fat in the yolk of whole eggs enhances the absorption of all carotenoids, boosting the nutritive value of whatever vegetable you may enjoy. Although oil in salad dressings also increase absorption of these vitamins, it's easy to overpour and mistakenly add mega calories whereas adding a single egg is only 70 calories and 6 grams of protein, making portion control simple while adding extra protein and nutrition in one easy step.
So next time you're in the mood for a big salad, give it an extra boost of nutrition with the perfect whole food - eggs!
Source: Kim et al. 2015. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition