To think this salad is healthy?

[Azzywhatty]

Watercress, rocket, spinach, canned mackerel in olive oil, red onion, pickled beetroot, spring onion, four baby potatoes, capers, olives, and a sprinkle of ground pumpkin and walnut, flaxseed, and chia seed, with a dressing of the olive oil from the mackerel, tsp Dijon mustard, two tsp honey, and lime juice.

YANBU - Of course that’s healthy
YABU - Not healthy - too much honey/potatoes/pickled food/whatever

Sounds incredibly healthy to me. How on earth could anyone argue that it's not?

Almost can't believe we've got a 100 post thread discussing a (massive) salad

Mushy peas, a pickled onion and a massive wally - sorted.

You've no idea
How big the salad is
How much the OP exercises
Her nutritional needs
How many meals she eats a day

So might be best to stop with the "greedy" statements

It's not greedy if you're hungry and it's appropriate for you, she's hardly shovelling down 10 chocolate bars

6 plants plus a good fish plus ESSENTIAL fats

Only an idiot or someone with orthorexia would say that's not healthy

If we all ate that as a third of our diet it would likely improve the health of our nation hugely

@faithbuffy it seems greedy to me because of the number of different ingredients, does one person really need 18 different ingredients in one meal. It's just impressionistic from my own perspective that one person doesn't need such a wide range of foods at one sitting, even if they are an elite athlete or pregnant. Perhaps it's the wrong word to use. Perhaps excessive or over the top is a better fit. Unfortunately without any context we are all only able to give impressions, which is what op asked for and that salad gives me the impression of someone taking more than they actually need.

That’s a really disordered way of thinking.

It is!

It’s really good to eat a variety of foods especially veggies in one sitting. Great for our guts. It has a decent amount of protein and healthy fats.

But obviously this is Mumsnet where low calorie, disordered eating rules. Therefore the salad ‘has too many ingredients, too much protein, is greasy and oily.’ Ridiculous.

And I don’t understand the poster that said it would only count as one portion of vegetables as only the salad leaves count. Beetroots are not vegetables are they? Plus spring onions.

Well if I make lasagne that's got 18 ingredients in. Or a stew with dumplings or a fridge clear out pasta bake
Ingredients doesn't equal greedy
The more variety the better for your health so better to have bits of everything

It sounds healthy but is probably high in calories, which might lead people who have a very black and white view of healthy to think that it’s not.

It is the wrong word to use. If the OP had all those ingredients in anyway and she has a sensible plan for using everything else up before it goes bad, why on earth shouldn't she have a salad that uses 15 or 20 ingredients? It's her time and her effort.

You'd have hated the salad I had the other day, which took me about five minutes to make. Kale, hummus, lemon juice, a little extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, cucumber, yellow pepper, tomato, gherkins, beetroot, artichoke hearts, pickled green chillis, little red peppers from a jar, generous sprinkling of toasted seeds. I had a very similar one the next day with salad leaves and avocado instead of kale, yellow pepper and cucumber. Lovely.

That reminds me of my ex's attitude - if it had more than four components (or fewer) it would get launched at me for being a greedy fat cunt. Not being permitted to consume cherry tomatoes because I'd already got cucumber on the plate wasn't exactly a high point of the ultimately doomed relationship. But neither was having to eat fish in secret during the day because he'd banned it outright.

Well, maybe not his, as he was more aggressive about it - but it's almost word for word something his mother would have said.

stir fry is one of my regular meals.

tofu, peppers, bean sprouts, pak choi, onions, oil, mushrooms, soy sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, miso, water, garlic, honey, mirin, broccoli, corn, maybe some peanut butter or beans/chickpeas. Plus noodles or rice.

i can get over 15 ingredients easily.

still wouldn’t consider it “greedy” to eat that though.

It actually makes me wonder if that poster has low self-esteem. Why would anybody think it was a sign of some kind of moral failing to eat a meal with more than a couple of ingredients in it?

Because proper stealth boasting, judiciously done, requires a subtle sleight-of-hand, and MN is full of lightweights these days.

Not only is this incredibly disordered and quite an odd way to view a salad, it also goes against all nutritional advice - which is basically to eat as wide a range of food (mainly fruit and vegetables, but also pulses, seeds, proteins, healthy fats etc) as possible. Eat the rainbow, as they say.

How many components of a meal do you deem to be not greedy? 3? 4?

The OP hasn't returned. Let's hope she hasn't died of a surfeit of salad ingredients.

Wow! Didn’t expect this many responses. Particularly enjoyed that posting about a salad constitutes a stealth brag 😆.

It was absolutely delicious and don’t understand those recoiling from it. Mackerel and beetroot salad with honey and mustard dressing used to be on the menu of my favourite restaurant and it is a delicious combination.

By healthy I meant nutritious, or good for the average person’s health. The normal, everyday meaning of ‘healthy’.

And I asked because I mentioned to a friend I was having it for lunch and did they want it, and their reply was ‘no thanks, I’m trying to eat healthy’. I said it was obviously healthy, they disagreed because of the potatoes, oil, and olives. He did say he thought olives were bad for you because they were ‘fattening’. I said I’d post on Mumsnet for a verdict and here we are.

Apologies for the late reply. I did the school run then went out for a meal (potato skins, pasta and ice cream).

Photo of the salad for fun.

Well I will thank you OP because I'm on a bit of a 'use up' campaign at the moment because I'm guilty of buying too much food because I wander round supermarkets picking up what looks nice or is a bargain so I'm trying to get through the stuff that's been hanging around too long, which currently includes some posh tinned mackerel in olive oil from Costco (highly recommended), one of those vacuum packs of beetroot that lasts for months and was on special some time last summer in Aldi and most of a cucumber that I bought a week or two ago and will turn to mush any day now.

There's also likely to be half jars of olives and capers in the fridge and I know there's some potatoes and a pepper in there too.

Just need to find time to prepare it into my own Massive Salad instead of doing what I normally do when WFH, which is running into the kitchen between calls and grabbing a tin of soup or some toast.

I want to like massive salads but I don't like cold food and hate chopping up loads of veg and it always seems like they take forever to make.

But I'm not sure I'd take note of anyone daft enough to think olives are 'fattening'. That's mad.

I think your meal is healthy subject to the usual caveats of portion size and what you're eating overall in terms of types and amount of food.

If you're eating the right amount of food, that sort of meal is a good mix of food to be eating.

But if you thought something like 'I only had salad for lunch, I can eat a pizza for dinner' you shouldn't be surprised if you don't lose weight.

Most my salads have 12+ ingredients...

Imagine calling person greedy and excessive because they like salads with lots of different bits😂

Just yesterday I had- lettuce, spinach, tomato, green pepper, capers, sundried tomato, basil, oregano, own mix of balsamic dressing (basically ketchup and balsamic), mozzarella, black pepper, crunchy chickpea for crunch, fermented beetroot salad.
You should see my mexican or arabic inspired ones😂
Or the "fuck need to use most things in fridge up today" ones

Only those on mumsnet could pull apart a perfectly fine salad with plenty of balanced nutrition. It’s fine @Azzywhatty A good balance of nutritious foods and food groups. but you probably already know that!

It's not unhealthy but it wouldn't work with the diet I'm currently following - keto. The honey and the potatoes - particularly the potatoes - would put me over my carb limit for the day.

I'm prediabetic and I need to lose weight so I'm following a pretty strict keto diet - no bread/rice/pasta/potatoes or food with high sugar (so that means no honey). Obvs no cakes/biscuits/sweets/fizzy drinks. I can have dark chocolate though!

When I get to the weight I need to be (and hopefully my blood sugars have dropped back into the normal range!) I plan to increase my carbs but stick within a low carb range. A low carb diet is higher in carbs than keto but lower in carbs than what most people eat. I've found my body feels much less bloated when I cut carbs and I retain less water, so it's definitely more of a lifestyle change for me rather than just a faddy weight loss diet. I think I can stick to a low carb diet for life.

I'll be able to accommodate a salad like this within a low carb diet when I get to that point. It looks really delicious and personally I bloody love a salad that's got lots of different ingredients - far more enjoyable to eat! Packed full of nutrition too. I wouldn't let your friend's comments bother you tbh.

Olives are fattening? Olives? He’s bonkers!