When to Salad or When Not to Salad; That is the Question; The Leafy-green Minefield of Debating What to Eat and When

So what’s the fuss about having to eat salad during a certain portion of a meal? At a recent seminar I had a participant who was put off by the idea of “having” to eat her salad last. This seminar BTW was my sixth in a series of eight Health & Wellness seminars I have been presenting since January. This particular seminar was the second part of a two part series on the Microbiome. This seminar specifically focused on the Gut Microbiome, Putting Science and Theory into Practice.

For my participants, so to better illustrate how to add Microbiome friendly foods into their diet, I had put together some menus and recipes. I tried to make these as delicious and appealing as possible yet at the same time have them be authentically healthy in relation to gut health. “So why did you put the salad last?” the lady asked. My reply was that along with salads being served last in a traditional European meal, in theory, salad is served last as a digestive.

Although, I have had much personal experience in both France and Italy where the salad is generally eaten last or as a side to the main course, I have to admit that upon some investigation, I could not find any solid evidence for rigidly enforcing a must eat salad last theory. “Quelle horreur!” Mind you, my menus and recipes are never dictates. What I offer instead are guidelines based on the latest nutritional research. Also as I believe too much in the theory of bio-individuality, I consider a one size fits all approach to diet to be an outdated and dangerous proposition.

As I see it, whether you eat your salad first or last is not really an important question. Rather, a more essential question might be, “have your eaten your prebiotics (soluble green fibers often found in salads) frequently enough?”

When tending to our gut gardens what counts is not whether salad is eaten first or last, but that salad or other soluble fibers are eaten frequently (two to three times daily is optimal) so to create that alchemic process of feeding, fermenting, and then nurturing the mucus lining of your distal colon.

**Please do take into account that individuals with gut dysbiosis (severe gut issues) oftentimes cannot handle salad or other raw vegetables especially from the alum (onion & garlic) and or cruciferous (cabbage & broccoli) families. In this case substituting salads with cooked or fermented (probiotic) veggies can be effective.

Remember how pre-biotics work in the distal colon?
What is important when tending to your gut garden is to make sure that you are getting enough soluble fiber (prebiotics) to feed and then ferment the healthy bacteria already living there. Short-Chain Fatty Acids become the fermented bi-products, and they provide valuable nutrition for the gut mucus lining. Basically, done frequently enough this creates a nurturing environment for your good bacteria critters to thrive, giving them a healthy advantage over the bad ones thus growing your healthy gut Microbiome.

Back to My dinner menu, the salad definitely comes last as it does in the traditional European dinner. I do understand however that for North Americans, salads are generally eaten as the first course. As my mother always served salad first, I am accustomed to eating this way as well and you can too, if you so choose. “Pas de problème!”

So don’t worry; there is no one size fits all approach for when to eat salad. Just do it often, and be sure to add in some good healthy fats.   As they say in France, “Vive la différence!”

A Votre Santé,
Alyce Childers
holistichomehealth ©