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

The OP didn’t say she was trying to lose weight.

Following your update OP, it doesn’t sound like your friend has a healthy attitude to food and you do.

To the posters who didn't like me using the word greedy - I would never police someone else's eating, that's obviously wrong. But op did ask for opinions and so I gave mine. To those saying eat the rainbow and it's good to have loads of different ingredients I agree with that over the course of a week, but I don't agree that it's healthy all at one meal. That's just my perspective. I have lived long enough to know to largely ignore the latest fad health advice that always gets contradicted a few years later. I listen to my body instead and my body doesn't want to eat so many different foods at one sitting, especially such rich and highly flavoured ones - they don't go well together and you don't need so many different types of protein and oils and sugars at one sitting. If your body likes it then go for it. But having now seen the salad I stick by my view that it looks pretty disgusting in terms of flavour and balance - there's too much in there fighting for attention.

Just to say, I think you could do with some professional help with this way of thinking about food as you seem to have a very skewed perception of what is greedy. Eating 4 McDonalds in a row or taking food intended for someone else is probably what I would call greedy. Eating a salad with multiple ingredients all of which are pretty healthy and which you’ve prepared, for yourself is absolutely not greedy.

I don't agree that it's healthy all at one meal.

I think you’re confusing what you enjoy (and fair enough if you don’t like the sound of it, that’s a matter of your own palate), and what is healthy. There’s no evidence at all that eating say 20 different types of vegetables and pulses in one sitting is in any way unhealthy- if fact quite the opposite, it’s very healthy to eat a variety rather than peas or carrots on rotation.

I listen to my body instead and my body doesn't want to eat so many different foods at one sitting, especially such rich and highly flavoured ones

Aren't you lucky that your body tells you it wants healthy, ascetic meals. Mine tells me it wants fat, salt and sugar, preferably all at once 😅

So instead of using words like “greedy”, “excessive” and “disgusting” @Owly11 you might think about simply saying “personally that’s not my taste” or “I don’t like that kind of meal”.

It's unhealthy tp have lots of different ingredients in one salad is top mumsnet

My body just tells me it wants curly wurlies and cheese and marmite flavour puffs. 😆

Exactly. If I listened to my body I'd eat rubbish, stay in bed all day and randomly run from social situations and people who chew loudly. My body is an idiot.

It really is!

It’s actually the complete opposite..we need as much variety as possible.

I've got into a sandwich rut for lunch - about time I went for a few good salads instead - thank you OP

Pp still haven't answered what is ideal number of ingress.

Like I get it, everyone has different tastes. No judgment there. I can't do kimchi, others love it. But I don't go around saying it's disgusting, let alone unhealthy because it has too many ingredients unlike sauerkraut I like. That's ridiculous

Hahaha same here - I have to actively IGNORE what my body tells me as otherwise I'd be the size of a whale 😂

I never said I wanted to lose weight.

This

I'd also like to know how many ingredients in one meal (salad) you can have before @Owly11 deems it greedy, and also which part of eating as many different varieties of food as you fancy is 'faddy'. I'm very used to some weird opinions on MN food threads but that one is something else.

Your friend is unreasonable, both for thinking olives are 'fattening' and for saying he's trying to 'eat healthy'. It's 'healthily.'

It really depends on the size of the portion / plate + what your activity is like + what you eat the rest of the time ++++

Olives aren’t fattening but they are absolutely loaded with salt, as is mackerel, and if you’re using the olive oil from the mackerel that will contain salt as well. And capers also have a high salt content, so you might easily exceed your recommended daily salt of 6g in that one meal alone.

Not enough carbs, and tinned fish in water would be a better option. Be careful with capers and pickled beetroot as they can be high in sugar and salt. Otherwise it sounds great.

as is mackerel, and if you’re using the olive oil from the mackerel that will contain salt as well.

Not all tinned mackerel is very salty (I just looked up a few brands, doesn't seem worse than many other tinned fishes and better than some). It's not really like the smoked vacuum packed type. And salt isn't soluble in oil.

Ooh just read your post and it made my mouth water!
off to gather the ingredients for a posh lunch (although without the nuts).

I meant in general. People (like your colleague) will say things like 'I've been good all day so I can have a pizza', but they've had a substantial salad for lunch that has as many calories as other meals.