Sept. 30, 2004 -- Counting calories? Try starting your next lunch with a sal
Sept. 30, 2004 -- Counting calories? Try starting your next lunch with a salad.
A new Pennsylvania State University study suggests that eating a salad as a first course at lunch can make people feel full enough to reduce their calorie consumption for the rest of the meal.
But not just any salad will do. The best bets have plenty of vegetables and few calories, says researcher Barbara Rolls, PhD, and colleagues.
Rolls' team studied 42 women who were about 26 years old, on average. Participants were in good health, regularly ate three meals per day, and were not dieting, training as athletes, pregnant, or taking medications that can affect appetite.
The Menu
Participants ate lunch at a lab once a week for seven weeks, sitting in private cubicles.
The basic menu was the same each time: a salad, followed by cheese tortellini with tomato sauce. The women were also given a liter of water to drink, if they wished.
The rules: Eat the entire salad first, and then have as much pasta as desired.
Six different salads were served over the course of the study. All had the same basic ingredients: vegetables (iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery, and cucumber) tossed with Italian dressing and shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
Low, medium, and high-calorie versions were tested.
The high-calorie salad used full-fat dressing and cheese. The medium-calorie salad used reduced-fat dressing, and the low-calorie salad featured fat-free dressing and light cheese.
Participants said the high-calorie salad tasted better than the low-calorie version, but taste didn't appear to make much difference.
Salad Strategies
The women tried small and large portions of each salad. The small portion was 150 grams, or about 1.5 cups by volume. The large portion was 300 grams, or about 3 cups.
Participants ate the fewest calories after starting meals with the low-calorie salads.
But after eating the highest-calorie salad, they consumed more calories throughout the entire meal.
The women who ate a small high-calorie salad ate 8% more calories total. The women who ate a large high-calorie salad ate 17% more calories total.
On the other hand, the women who ate a small low-calorie salad ate only 7% more calories total, and the women who ate a large low-calorie salad ate only 12% more calories total.
The researchers say it's probably the calories -- not the fat content -- that mattered.
The bottom line: A first-course salad can help cut a meal's calories, but the salad's calories and portion size counts.
It may also be worth noting that the women took a break between courses. They were served the pasta 20 minutes after finishing their salads.
The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
