When it comes to salad, the health value of a salad really depends on quality rather than quantity. While salad has the potential of a health food, it's easier than you might imagine spoiling its benefits by pouring on salad dressing, overdoing the carbs, forgetting about protein, any of which can turn a salad into a high calorie meal.

Here are the most common mistakes to avoid:

Forgetting protein

When you’re making a meal out of a salad you need more than just produce. To remedy that, the advice is to add some protein and fat to make it more satisfying. Poultry, fish, avocado, cheese, egg, nuts, or beans are all good options.
People are afraid to put nuts or avocado in their salad, thinking it will be too high in calories, but it makes your salad a lot more enjoyable to eat and these plant-based sources of protein tend to be healthier than meats and cheeses, which contain high levels of saturated fats.

Don't drown it in dressing

A salad without dressing is sad and boring and adding a dressing makes salad tasty. When your salad tastes good, you’re more likely to eat more of those good-for-you vegetables. But you must be careful to make sure the dressing doesn't turn your balanced meal into a 2,000-calorie extravaganza.

And there are proven health benefits to including some oil in your salad dressing. Oil helps you better absorb fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamins E and K and carotenoids, plant pigments that have been shown to have health benefits and can help protect against heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes.

Be careful with the croutons

Croutons can be high in refined carbohydrates, sodium, and saturated fat. Thankfully, there are lots of other nutritious choices if you want to add a satisfying crunch to your salad. There are nuts, seeds, chickpeas, red kidney beans, Kale chips or dried seaweed or whole-grain crackers.

Using 'light' greens

Lettuce isn’t the nutritional wasteland you may have heard it is. It has some vitamins and minerals and is low in calories. But it pales in comparison to the nutrients in darker greens like spinach and kale. Dark leafy greens are loaded with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fibre, helping to combat diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.

So, the magic formula for a winning salad

Try combining the following for a delicious salad:

• Two parts leafy greens; chopped peppers, cucumbers, or tomatoes; or roasted vegetables;
• One-part carbs, such as quinoa, brown rice, or sweet potatoes;
• Protein, such as eggs, beans, or tofu;
• Fat such as avocado, olives, or an oil-based dressing or a Greek salad with feta; and
• Crunchy bits such as nuts, seeds, or crunched-up whole-grain crackers.

Source: https://www.everydayhealth.com

Conclusion

Like all diets, there is an art to what we choose to do and how we choose to bring foods together. We know salads (put together by our own fair hands, as opposed to shop bought salads) are good for us. But what's interesting by this research, is that the salad itself is not to blame, but what we do to the salad, to make sure it's tasty.

So instead of adding tonnes of sauce, reduce the sauce and make sure you're eating less carbs, more proteins, and more veggies. Avocado and feta are also a wonderful alternative and accompaniment.