With heart felt thanks to dieters everywhere, the humble is starting to take on center stage from an unknown, small corner as some years ago. Indeed, salad is now enjoying the same popularity of pizza and other fast food.

Brand-new diet and healthy eating plans seem to appear all over the place every month. Going from the crash diet, to the yo-yo plan, to the Low Carb-High Protein food diet, and not forgetting the After 6 diet, the South Beach diet, and to a plan as ridiculous as dieting according to the color of the food!

The methods vary generally in the composition of the food that must be consumed whilst adhering to the diet, but the common element to all these is the inclusion of salad in one form or another.

Indeed, the ordinary salad has reached those fast food outlets, as health awareness begins to develop. Even the Fast food king, McDonald’s himself, had to bow down to the pressure and has started to offer healthy alternatives that includes, yes that’s right, our friendly salad.

There are more than a thousand ways to make salads. It can be offered as an appetizer, a main course, for a dessert and just as a sandwich filling. Even though most often linked with things such as romaines, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes grapes, and lettuces salads can also take on the form of a bigger meal.

While tuna and chicken remain the most common ingredients, but lamb, turkey and peking duck have been finding their way into our bowls of salad everywhere.

More often than not, the word salad refers to a mixture of diced and sliced ingredients. Although meat can be used, it should feature at least a couple of vegetables with some fruit, which can be served up dry or garnished with a dressing.

The most common dressings include whipped cream, vinaigrette, 1000 island, honey and mustard and Cesar’s’ dressing. The most common main ingredients include tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and cucumber, but hard boiled eggs have also become a regular ingredient.

Learn more about healthiest salad dressings. Stop by Angela Pearson’s site where you can also find quick and easy recipes for dinner.