Gettting The Most Nutrients From Your Salad

Two people can eat the same salad but only one may absorb most of the important vitamins, minerals and nutrients from the dish. The secret to a salad’s health benefits goes beyond what’s in the salad: There’s one easy step you should take to make sure you get all of the salad’s disease-fighting nutrients.

Add a few drips of olive oil.

Research on nutrient absorption finds that adding a little bit of olive oil (or canola oil) to your salad makes it easier for your intestinal tract to take up the carotenoids and other nutrients important to good health. Fat-free dressings don’t help with nutrient absorption at all. Butter or other vegetable oils that are polyunsaturated (like soy oil) are not as efficient.

“If you want to utilize more from your fruits and vegetables, you have to pair them correctly with fat-based dressings,” says Mario Ferruzzi, the study’s lead author and a Purdue associate professor of food science. “If you have a salad with a fat-free dressing, there is a reduction in calories, but you lose some of the benefits of the vegetables.”