If you’re a fan of a healthy diet, especially salads, then you may have heard of Caesar salad. Many people agree that salad is a delicious dish, but is it good for losing weight?
The Origin
As an Italian-American dish, you would assume that the salad came from one of those two countries. Surprisingly, the origin of Caesar salad is from Tijuana, Mexico. The salad was made on July 4, 1924, and named after its creator, Caesar Cardini. Caesar salad has more than one origin story, one of them says that Caesar Cardini’s brother, Alex, claims to be the one who made the salad and named it Aviato, while others say it was Alex himself who named it after his brother Caesar. Other stories put the onus on an employee named Livio Santini, who said the salad was actually his Italian mother’s recipe. Ultimately, no matter the origin, the Caesar name is what remains.
Caesar salad and weight loss.
The Caesar Salad is made with romaine lettuce, croutons, and a dressing that contains anchovies, egg yolks, black pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, Dijon mustard, and Worcestershire sauce. These ingredients created a whopping 480 calorie dish, along with 23 grams of carbs, 10 grams of protein, and 40 grams of fat.
480 calories are equivalent to somewhere around 3 full cups of cow’s milk (240ml each). If you don’t have any workout plans to burn off some of that energy, Caesar Salad is not something you should eat if you’re trying to lose weight. Not to mention the fat content could add more difficulty to that problem as well, and most of it is saturated fat, which is bad for you. If you do intend to exercise, the moderate 10 grams of protein is not ideal for building muscle.
If you want to eat Caesar salad and lose weight, you better have made it yourself and have a few tweaks to the ingredients. You can make the dressing lighter by not using egg yolks or olive oil; instead, you can use vegetable broth, avocado, and just a dash of Parmesan cheese. You can also skip the anchovies since Worcestershire sauce already contains them. Or you can cut out Worcestershire sauce (it has added sugar) and look for Romano over Parmesan cheese (for fewer carbs per gram) and lose the croutons.
Overall, Caesar salad is not good for weight loss. If a salad can keep you from eating things that have more calories, then keep it. But if it gives you even more than what you normally eat, then you are making your weight loss journey a bit more difficult.