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Salad Bars and Your Diabetes Diet Plan-Choose Wisely
Salad bars are often a good choice when eating out for a diabetic. Supermarkets offer salad bar food for take out options. And in many restaurants, such as Ruby Tuesday for instance, the food selections are endless offering leafy fiber rich vegetables, canned vegetables, fruits, and everything else. The vegetables and fruits are loaded with beta-carotene, vitamins C and A, potassium, and also folic acid. Not to mention, fiber is found in many raw vegetables and fresh fruits. These special food bars should be clean and the food nice and fresh. Be aware of this when selecting your food from there. Most of these bars should have a protective plastic shield cover and a sneeze guard to prevent people's germs from spreading around as they serve themselves. Most bars have long handled utensils so that you do not have to touch the foods to get them onto your plate. This is another germ preventer.
Leafy green vegetables are a wise choice, and nutrient/fiber rich. Your spinach, romaine, and endive are great sources here. Iceberg lettuce is mostly water and does not have the calories. But the nutrients found in your iceberg lettuce is not as much as in the other romaine and spinach types. Raw vegetables add flavor to your salad without the calorie counts adding up. Vegetables that are raw contain potassium, fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants. Your tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbages, green broccoli, cucumbers, radishes, and carrots are the best additions for making up a healthful salad. Be really aware of vegetables that are drenched in dressings and marinades, or other sauces. These tag on the fat grams in a hurry and do not make a healhful choice. Your frozen and canned vegetables are found at most bars that are complete. Olives, artichoke hearts, and frozen peas are the most frequently found. Your canned vegetables are low in fats, with the exception of olives. Olives contain up to 5 grams of fat per serving which is about 10 of these. Be aware that your canned vegetables are high in sodium, though low in fat. This is not a wise choice for kidney patients with diabetes that need to keep a lid on salt and sodium counts daily. Canned olives are the worst for the sodium count, which usually contain at least 900 mg per serving. Various types of fruits that are canned and also dried fruits are offered as part of the complete vegetable bar. Most restaurant's bars will offer up strawberries, and melon types. These fruits are rich in potassium, and have zero grams of fats. They are of a low protein source, but also a rich source in carbohydrates. Most fruits are based on carbohydrates and calorie sources. How many calories or carbohydrates a fruit may have, is dependent on serving sizes and types of fruit. Most fruits are a half cup each serving, and will contain up to 80 calories a serving depending on what fruit it is. Fruit cocktails that are packed in syrup have considerably more sugars and will be much higher in calories than if it were freshly served and not canned. Your nuts, beans, and seeds are great sources of fiber. Your kidney beans for example, are a rich source of fiber for sure. A one half cup serving contains 5 grams of fiber along with 6-7 grams of protein. The disadvantage to beans that are canned is that these have very high sodium counts. For flavor and crunch to your salad, add nuts and seeds. Most of the fat coming from nuts and seeds are a heart healthy source. Sources high in protein are meat, eggs, and also fish. Some of these are high in sodium and also fats. Your more lean choices include seafood like shrimp, chicken breast which is grilled, tuna, and turkey. Bacon which is frequently part of the line, is higher in fat, and contains five times fat more than any other protein source. Dairy choices seen are cheese and cottage cheese. The amount of fat per serving in these choices depend largely on the type of cheeses. Your cottage cheese has about 2 grams of fat per serving size, whereas with cheddar, blue cheese, feta, or parmesan contain considerably more fat grams anywhere from 6-10 grams a serving. Be aware of salads that have already been dressed. Coleslaw, potato salads, macaroni salad, and three beans salad usually are filled with fat from dressings and mayonnaise. Just one scoop for example of these salad selections at the par, contain at least 12 grams or more of fat. Watch salad toppings like croutons, bacon bits, chow mein noodles. Though they had a lot of flavor to your salad, they do tend to take away the health benefit by adding much more fat and calories. It is often best to choose just one salad topping and use it sparingly without overdoing it. Always be aware of salad dressings. They can transform what is a fairly lowfat meal into a high fat one. There are salad bars that offer low calorie dressings versus the higher fat creamy ones. Reduced fat dressings have less than half of the calories oftentimes than regular salad dressings. A good weight watcher trick is to take some salad dressing from the bar into a little cup. Dip your fork into the dressing with each bite for the taste, and this avoids too much dressing. You can create a big meal with plenty of healthful choices by just watching and knowing what you are doing selecting wisely.
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