A Salad a Day

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A Salad A Day

Hygienic Review

Vol. XXXIII March, 1972 No. 7

A Salad A Day

Herbert M. Shelton

I coined the slogan "a salad a day keeps acidosis away." It is rare

that a slogan is strictly accurate, but this one came as near being

fully accurate as slogans do. It is true, however, only if the salad is

of the right kind. Shrimp salad, potato salad, egg salad and salad

covered with oil or vinegar will not answer the purpose assigned to

salads.

The word salad is from a Latin word meaning salt, and our salad

vegetables are abundant sources of mineral salts in their most readily

assimilated form. There is no substitute for green foods in our diet.

It is important that these be taken, largely if not wholly, in the raw

or uncooked state. In general the green leaves of plants are our

richest sources of organic salts (minerals), are rich sources of

vitamins, are sources of small quantities of the highest grade proteins

and are the best sources of chlorophyll, which, while it will not

deodorize your breath and body, is essential in animal nutrition.

Salads are not so important in the diet of one who lives largely on

uncooked foods and whose diet is made up largely of fruits and

vegetables. One who eats largely of flesh, cereals, legumes and other

starchy and high protein foods has an urgent need for one or two large

green salads daily.

A British author says that "two or three hunderd years ago our

meat-gorging ancestors, if they happened to be wealthy enough to gorge

on meat, went through a fifteen course meal without the mention of

fruit, from duck to chicken, to pork and pheasant, then fish and meat

again, 'till they gasped and often passed out in surfeit or apoplexy.

Some Red Indian tribes, living almost entirely on meat, scorned fruit

and vegetables as woman's food, and the hunters of Asia and Africa,

though there are really only few of them, do not make much fuss over

fruit." Taking a salad with a meal of that kind is somewhat on the

order of taking an antedote with a poison.

Of the number of green foods that are commonly eaten in this country,

the following is not a complete list, but contains a sufficient number

to show the variety of such foods that we use: spinach, kale, chard,

turnip greens, beet greens, cabbage, broccoli, okra, green beans, fresh

peas, asparagus, collards, lettuce, celery, Chinese cabbage, boctoy,

mustard greens, etc. All of these vegetables are palatable in the raw

state and may profitably be added to a salad. There are several

varieties of lettuce that may be used, often two or more kinds at a

time. In some parts of the nation escarole, endive and other green

vegetables are obtainable. The cucumber makes a very delightful

addition to a salad and may be eaten whole.

The variety of different salads that may be made is great and one or

more of these may be had at ail seasons of the year. Indeed, it is

important to have some fresh green food every day of the year and not

take salads only at intervals. It is well to eat a large salad and not

skimp on this part of the meal. The salads served in most homes,

restaurants, cafeterias, hotels, and other eating places are commonly

too small to adequately meet the needs of the persons eating them. A

big salad should be the rule.

I get complaints from many people that they cannot take so much of what

they call "roughage." Dr. Kellogg pointed out years ago that this

so-called "roughage" were better termed "bulk." The fact is that the

small amount of indigestible cellulose in these foods is not rough. It

is, on the contrary, rather soft and filled with water. On the other

hand, if a large salad is run through a juice extractor and all the

water extracted from it, it will be seen at once that the amount of

bulk in what looks like an enormous salad is but a small measure. The

cry that they contain too much "roughage" is not based on fact.

The widespread practice of cutting, chopping, and shredding salad

vegetables and serving them with dressings of one kind or another

cannot be too strongly condemned. Dr. Tilden used to advise his readers

to make such a salad and then he would add that the salad should be

"dressed with lemon juice, oil and salt to taste." If cabbage was the

only vegetable to be procured, as at certain seasons of the year it

often is in some parts of the country, he advised eating it in the form

of cabbage slaw. "The slaw may be dressed with salt and lemon or

vinegar; or a sweet, sour dressing may be used; vinegar and lemon

juice, sugar, salt, and a little sweet or sour cream." Both of these

are bad dietetic practices and must be looked upon as concessions by

Tilden to the popular taste.

When vegetables and fruits are sliced, cut small, ground, shredded, or

otherwise broken into small particles, so that the oxygen of the air

gets to them, much food value is lost through oxidation. The longer

they are permitted to stand before eating, after they have been thus

treated, the greater is the loss of food value. The loss of certain

vitamins through oxidation is especially rapid. Such practices are

permissible only when feeding the toothless individual who is unable to

chew whole foods. Then the food should be fed immediately after

preparing, so that a minimum of loss through oxidation is sustained.

The dressings added to salads are not incompatible with the salads per

se, but they do interfere with the digestion of other foods. Acids used

in the dressings interfere with the digestion of both starches and

proteins. Oils added to the salad interfere with the digestion of

proteins. Whether cream is sweet or sour, its addition to the salad

will interfere with protein digestion. Sugar added to the salad

dressing inhibits protein digestion. Thus, while there is no serious

reason why oil or cream may not be added to a salad when it is to be

taken with a starch meal, it should not be added to a salad that is to

be taken with a protein meal. Lemon juice and vinegar should not be

added with either meal. There can be no objection to the addition of

lemon juice or oil or both to the salad if a salad is to be taken alone

as we often like to do, or, as often happens, the salad and a cooked

green vegetable is to be eaten as the meal.

Herbert M. Shelton

-- Peace be with you,

Don "Quai" Eitner

"Spirit sleeps in the mineral, breathes in the vegetable, dreams in the animal and wakes in man."

Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses. ~Baptiste Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire

The obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb