A good burger gives you plenty of energy, protein and a lot of fibre; all of these help you feel satiated. Salads do contain a lot of vegetables that carry vitamins, minerals, and fibre. But the problem is they often lack overall energy and protein.
Broken down, a burger is a much better choice. Check out these salad options that are really not so healthy: Crispy chicken Caesar salad: Even before you add the salad dressing (about 200 calories), this salad can easily reach 700-plus calories, just from the crispy chicken pieces.
NEW! The big salad sounds like a healthier offering than a burger. But after you add the grilled chicken, bacon and rich dressing to that pile of greens, it has more calories than a fast food burger.
Burgers contain excessive amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat. Meat consists of fat naturally, which increases the cholesterol level. When you have burgers, the cholesterol level rises in the blood, thereby increasing the chances of heart disorders.
But, just because there is lettuce, doesn't make it healthy. In fact, most salads are made with iceberg lettuce as the base, which has little nutritional value. Then it is topped with a wide range of ingredients that could add up to the caloric equivalent of a burger, fries, and shake.
Worst: Salad With Creamy Dressing
Dressings like ranch, blue cheese, and Thousand Island are often high in calories, unhealthy saturated fat, and sodium.
Salads can be a good way to get your important vitamins, minerals, and fiber. However, not all salads are healthy or nutritious. It depends on what is in the salad.
Science says that junk foods are full of calories, fat and excess sodium and having it even once can be bad for your health. For example, a single hamburger contains 500 calories, 25 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbs, 10 grams of sugar, and 1,000 milligrams of sodium, which is enough to cause havoc in your system..
“If you really enjoy burgers, eating them occasionally is perfectly fine as part of a healthy balanced lifestyle, even if you are trying to lose weight, because the impact of one or two burgers over time can be minimized if you are doing other healthy things that counter its effects,” adds Dr.
Weight Gain
We all know, burgers are high-calorie junk food that are not good for our health. It is loaded with calories that add to our weight.
Salads made with a variety of fruits and vegetables make the perfect healthy lunch or dinner. That's because they're filled with tons of nutrients that benefit your body, like fiber, vitamin E, and vitamin C. These nutrients can work to lower your blood sugar, regulate cholesterol levels, and help you lose weight.
Spinach And Other Leafy Greens
Spinach and other leafy green vegetables like kale, lettuce, etc. are great for burning belly fat and are very nutritious as well.
Tip: A salad beats both pizza and pasta because you fill up on veggies, not white flour. (Note: at CPK, even the salads have around 1,000 calories, so order a half salad.)
While fast-food menus are often loaded with greasy, fried food, most restaurants offer salads as a healthier alternative. While it may seem like any salad is a nutritious choice, especially when compared to burgers or fried chicken, not all salads are created equal.
Eating a salad a day is a great way to make sure your brain stays in tip-top shape. In fact, a 2017 study found that eating one daily improved the memory of elderly people by as much as 11 years. Even just half a cup of salad was enough to slow the rate of cognitive decline.
Fast food contains a lot of unhealthy ingredients like sugar, saturated fats, trans fats, and a lot of calories. While eating fast food once a week will not pose any harm in the short run, once you start regularly indulging in cheat meals, all these ingredients can come back to haunt your body.
The NHS currently recommends that adults who eat more than 90g of red or processed meat a day should try to reduce their intake to 70g a day. That's because eating a lot of red and processed meat can reportedly increase your risk of developing bowel cancer. Our advice: everything in moderation.
High-risk foods
Such foods are usually high in protein, require strict temperature control and protection from contamination. Examples include: cooked meat and poultry such as: beef, pork, ham, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck.
“The fattier beef will add more calories to your burger,” she explains. “There could also be binders in the ground beef patty such as egg or bread crumbs, and with the addition of toppings (hello, cheese and bacon) and a refined-grain bun, this all adds up to a high-calorie meal in one sandwich.”
Dr. Sharma, who teaches an Ayurvedic cooking class at the Art of Living Retreat Center in North Carolina, echoes the sentiment, saying that, while the exact number varies for each person, she recommends beginning with raw veggies comprising no more than 10 to 25 percent of your daily diet.
You'll keep your brain young.
Aiming to eat salad every day is a great way to make sure your brain stays in tip-top shape. In fact, a 2018 study found that eating one daily improved the memory of elderly people by as much as 11 years. Even just half a cup of salad was enough to slow the rate of cognitive decline.
Salads are recommended to add fibre and micronutrients to our diet. However, one must not replace a meal with only vegetable salads as they lack protein. Many fall prey to fad diets and replace their whole meals with vegetable salads.
Greens are also low in calories, but high in nutrients and volume, which can be helpful if you're trying to manage your weight," Moore points out. Some of the most nutritious greens include spinach, kale, romaine, watercress, and arugula (see "Salad greens by the numbers").