---
title: "The Salad Paradox: Why Your Healthy Meal Might Be Causing Bloating"
entity: "blog"
canonical_url: "https://www.drdanwool.com/blog/saladsbloatingandguthealth"
markdown_url: "https://www.drdanwool.com/llms/blog/saladsbloatingandguthealth"
lastmod: "2024-08-13T07:00:00.000Z"
---

[video transcript]  I'm going to take a little bit of a controversial stance here: salad should be a starter course, not a meal.

Why would I say that? Well, one of the things I see very commonly here in the clinic, particularly with people with bloating, is that we'll do a diet review, and inevitably, for lunch or for dinner, they will have a big salad.

"Why?" you ask. We're told constantly we need to get more vegetables in our diet. So somewhere along the line, we think we can throw all these different kinds of vegetables into some lettuce, douse it in some dressing, add protein (which we're also told we need to get on a regular basis), and voila, we have a tasty meal.

This sounds like a wonderful idea, but it's also a meal with a whole bunch of stuff that's very hard to break down.

 

## The Original Purpose of Salad: Priming Your Digestion

The original reason for a salad was as a starter. Why? Because salads contain bitters . Think about the greens in a good salad: arugula, radicchio, baby greens, spinach. These are all bitter.

And the reason we want bitters first—salad as a starter—is because when we put them in the mouth, they stimulate the production of saliva. All those enzymes that help us break food down as we're chewing it. And second, they stimulate stomach acid. The stomach is geared with high amounts of acid in order to break down proteins.

So what bitters really help us do (and there are people who can just put them on their tongue, or you can get bottles on Amazon; they used to do this in the Middle Ages) is prime the pump for the big meal. If you go to any fancy steakhouse, look at the way they lay out the menu. You have all the steaks, obviously, but what are the sides? The sides are all side salads, bitter greens, fiber to help you pull that stuff through. It's really important.

 

## A Simple Bloating Fix: Salad as a Starter

So I would say, if you want to have a salad, have it as a starter. Have a little bit of a starter, get that digestion going in the mouth. Get that digestion going in the gut. And then you will have better digestion and a heck of a lot less bloating.

So, salad as a starter, not a meal. You can check out more information and more videos here on my YouTube channel at Dr. Dan Wool or on my website, [drdanwool.com](http://www.drdanwool.com.booking). Till next time, it's Dr. Wool...."Fix your Gut, Solve your Health."

## Oh...one more thing

🔔Don't forget to subscribe to my You Tube Channel for more updates!

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About the Author

## Dr. Dan Wool, NMD

Dr. Dan Wool is a naturopathic doctor who specializes in gastroenterology, hormones and men's health in Scottsdale, Arizona. [Set up a free 15-minute discovery call with Dr. Wool today! ](https://drdanwool.com/booking)

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