There is a specific moment in the working day when you find yourself in front of a bar window, hungry and in a hurry, and you head straight for the salad. The feeling is that of having made the right choice, the virtuous one, the one that the body will thank. But the nutritional reality of that colorful dish served to us is often much more complex than it seems. We asked Sonia Cucci, a nutritional biologist, to guide us through what we should really look at when ordering a salad out of home.
The starting point: the complete single dish
The first thing to clarify is that salad at the bar can be an excellent lunch, but only under a specific condition. It must be a complete dish in all respects. Sonia Cucci immediately explains it clearly:
The basis is to start with a complete meal. The main dish, in the case of salad, must contain vegetables, a source of fat, a source of protein and then, perhaps inside through small croutons or pieces of bread, or separately, also the source of carbohydrates.
This is the heart of the reasoning. Salad alone is essentially water and fiber. Nutritious, sure, but far from being enough to sustain an afternoon of work, concentration or physical activity. Anyone who sits at a bar and orders a bowl of lettuce with a few tomatoes thinking they’re eating healthy is actually setting themselves up to feel hungry within two hours. The body needs balanced macronutrients, and lunch, even a quick one, must respect this logic.
Proteins: better cooked than packaged
One of the aspects that Dr. Sonia Cucci insists on most strongly concerns the quality of the proteins that are included in the salad. The fundamental distinction is between cooked foods and packaged foods.
Cooked foods are always preferable to packaged ones. So, compared to cold cuts, roast turkey chopped up in salad is better, or eggs are better, or chicken cooked on the grill and cut into strips inside.
The difference is not just organoleptic, packaged cold cuts bring with them preservatives, sodium in high quantities and often saturated fats. Grilled chicken, baked turkey and hard-boiled eggs are foods with a significantly superior nutritional profile. When looking at the cafe window, it is worth checking what kind of proteins make up the proposed salad. A visible and recognizable grilled chicken breast is something completely different from a few slices of industrial cooked ham.
For those who follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, there is a dedicated space that is worth exploring carefully.
As for vegan alternatives, legumes are all preferable. Chickpeas, when talking about salad, are the ones to be preferred also in terms of calorie intake. We can also talk about tofu, seitan or soy derivatives in the salad.
Chickpeas in particular offer a combination of plant proteins, fiber and complex carbohydrates making them an excellent choice for those who want a balanced meal without animal proteins.
Vegetables: variety is synonymous with quality
Another element that is often underestimated is the composition of the green part of the dish. Sonia Cucci is direct on this point:
It is better to have various types of salad on the plate, rather than just lettuce or radicchio, also because some are less digestible than others. The most digestible of all, generally, is songino, valerian.
A monochromatic salad, made of only one type of leaf, is nutritionally poorer than a mixed composition. Each type of vegetable brings with it a different set of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The mix of colors on your plate is one of the most reliable visual indicators of nutritional variety. Arugula, radicchio, songino, spinach, Roman salad: each has something to offer, and together they create a much richer nutritional profile.
Added to this is the presence of tomatoes, which the nutritional biologist mentions with an important clarification:
The addition of tomatoes, which however belong to the category of fruits and not vegetables, is always welcome, also because they are rich in water and vitamins.
The seasoning: the real critical point
Here we arrive at what defines the heart of the matter, the element that more than any other can transform a healthy dish into something problematic.
One thing that I think is important is the seasoning, which is generally given separately and is preferable that way, because often the oil that is already put inside is of poor quality or there is excess of it. Precisely because it is of poor quality: if it were good oil, it would not be used in excess.
This observation is insightful and practical. Low-quality oil is often used in abundance to make up for the lack of flavor. A good extra virgin olive oil, on the other hand, has such a rich aromatic and nutritional profile that a small quantity is enough to enhance the entire dish.
Better condiments brought separately or in dispensers, or even more so in sealed sachets, so as to be sure that it is not old and that it is a type of oil that you take sealed.
The sealed single-portion sachet, often seen as an inelegant solution, is actually the most reliable guarantee of the quality and freshness of the product. The same logic applies to salt.
The same thing goes for salt, which is always preferable to set aside, especially in the case of particular needs which, due to pathology or other indications from the doctor, must be dosed.
The extras that make the difference
In addition to the basic ingredients, there are some additions that Dr. Sonia Cucci considers particularly valuable from a nutritional point of view.
As foods to be inserted inside, excellent if we are talking about parmesan flakes, excellent if we are talking about legumes, cooked foods, tofu, fresh cheeses, even if mature ones are always better.
Parmesan flakes, in particular, are often underrated. They bring calcium, high-quality protein and intense flavor that reduces the need for additional seasoning. A salad enriched with a few flakes of seasoned parmesan, legumes, mixed vegetables and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil is much more than a simple side dish: it is a complete and satisfying meal.
How to tell if the salad is fresh
There is one last aspect that the nutritional biologist underlines and which concerns something that is rarely paid attention to: the conservation of the dish.
Find out if the food has already been kept on the plate for too long. We can notice this if a lot of water settles on the bottom of the plate, or by the consistency of the leaves and the green part of the salad. As for what’s protein inside, like legumes, chicken or tuna, it’s hard to tell if it’s been there for a while. Instead, by looking at the appearance of the leaves and vegetables we can understand it much more.
Water at the bottom of the container is an unmistakable sign: the vegetables have released their liquids by osmosis, often due to prolonged contact with the seasoning. The leaves have a soft and wilted texture. A fresh salad has crisp, dry, live leaves. Learning to observe these details before sitting down to eat is a simple habit that protects both your health and the pleasure of the meal.
Salad is not automatically healthy
The final message that emerges from Sonia Cucci’s reasoning is perhaps the most important and the one that is most often ignored: the fact that a dish contains vegetables does not automatically make it a healthy or light meal.
The thing is, if the salad is full of dressing or a chaotic mix of proteins, it’s unhealthy just because it’s salad.
A salad drowned in low-quality oil, with packaged meats, only one type of wilted leaf and no carbohydrate source is both nutritionally unbalanced and potentially full of empty calories. The mental label of “light dish” that we instinctively associate with salad can become an obstacle to food awareness.
Eating well at the bar is possible, but it requires a few seconds of extra attention in front of the window, the ability to read the dish with different eyes and the willingness to ask the staff questions when something is unclear. The right salad, one built with fresh ingredients, quality proteins, good fats and a source of carbohydrates, is one of the most complete and satisfying lunches you can choose. It’s worth learning to recognize it.
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