[3FCer344892]

But does it take anyone a long time to eat salad?

Let me explain. I am a fast eater, and with regular cooked food I down it quick, but with a 'loaded' salad it takes me a REALLY long time to eat it.

This is what my salad had in it: spinach, collard greens, carrot greens, carrot, cilantro, cucumber, mustard greens, tomato, green bell pepper, broccoli.

I had a bowl, and it took me probably an hour to eat it all, especially with the broccoli.

[reji]

Oh yes. I get tired of eating a big salad long before I would get tired of "regular cooked food."

[Jennifer 3FC]

It takes me much longer to eat a raw salad. Try dicing the pieces in to much smaller bites, and that may help.

[Tafadhali]

Same here, sometimes I get sick of eating the super healthy ones (no meat, cheese, eggs and limited dressing....ya know a good for you salad) before I'm even full. Too much rabbit food and I just eat slower and slower....

I try to make sure I put lots of good veggies on my salads so I don't have just bland greens. That helps me. I've stopped eating cheese for the most part (love it, but not its calorie count) but I'll still add lean ham, turkey, tuna or eggs to a salad which go a long ways towards making it more interesting and nutritionally complete (protein!). Dressing is a killer calorie wise, I can't manage salad with no dressing so I experiment with the various light dressings. Some are better than others! Keeping the salad interesting helps it go down.

Adorable kitty by the way.

[bronzeager]

I bet you have to chew longer with a salad that's primarily veggies, especially raw. So there are more pauses between mouthfuls. Did you ever have an older person say to you if you wanted to lose weight you should chew every bite 20 times? Or is that just me?

That's actually one of the points made by David Kessler, the guy who wrote The End of Overeating; he says one of the reasons calorie consumption is up generally in America is that processed food is such a big part of our modern diet. And processed food is in many ways literally pre-processed or pre-digested, so it's softer, sometimes actually liquid (like milkshakes). So it slides down much faster than unprocessed foods, and we can end up ingesting calories REALLY quickly, so quickly that we don't have the sense we have actually eaten, and end up eating more. I always think about Wonder Bread as compared to the old fashioned "farmer" bread you get at traditional bakeries in Europe. You really have to CHEW on a slice of that stuff, I used to complain when I was small that it hurt my jaw, but when you had a sandwich made of those you knew you had eaten something even though in weight it would have been the same size as a soft bread slice. Now fast food is literally "fast".

So in way it's kind of a good thing, you're rediscovering the pre-modern American way of eating.

[3FCer344892]

Thanks, Tafadhali! He's my baby.

That's a good idea, Jennifer 3FC. I'll try it next time.

bronzeager, i've heard the chew 20 times before, but can't remember where. lol.

Yeah, my salad didn't have any dressing or cheese or meat. It was all raw veggie. My husband downed two bowls, and I was eating on my one bowl for a REALLY long time. lol.

[rainbowstripe]

I read this thread the other day and then was actually thinking about it when I ate my salad for lunch today. Mine are really simple, basic salads because I don't know what to put in them and don't really do raw veges that well - just lettuce, cucumber and carrot - but it did actually take me quite a while to eat it! Longer than say... a sandwich I think!

[3FCer344892]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too, rainbowstripe, because I eat sandwiches all the time and just go right through them in no time at all. lol.

[joyful retiree]

Yes, it takes me longer to eat a salad, & soup with vegetables also takes me longer to get through. I think it's a good thing, because as long as I get sufficient protein with the meal, the combination of eating high volume foods & eating slower seems to keep me full much longer.

[pucedaisy]

that's one reason i like salads! there's no feeling of, oh, is it over already?
but i also like to put cooked veggies in a salad- i steam extra broccoli and other veggies, marinade it in some vinaigrette and then toss them in with the salad. i like to have lots of different textures and colors.

[Auntieb]

You are right; it takes me almost an hour to eat a good salad. I've never used carrot tops in mine, isn't it bitter??
Love your cat, I have four.

[3FCer344892]

Yeah, the carrot tops are a little bitter and kind of spicy. They taste like very strong carrot. Yeah, joyful retiree, it takes me just as long to eat a hearty soup too.

I agree, pucedaisy, I enjoy eating (yeah, I said it lol) so it is nice to not finish in like 2 minutes. lol.