May is National Salad Month! Let’s Celebrate (Quarantine Style)!

May is National Salad Month! I bet you didn’t even know there was such a thing. But there is...because salads are important, that’s why! For those of us battling macular degeneration and vision loss, eating a salad a day can potentially be the difference between losing sight more quickly or keeping our vision loss at bay. I think that’s pretty darn important.

Buying and picking fruits and vegetables

You guys, I wait all.winter.long for spring. All winter long. Spring is when the fruits and veggies I love so much really start to be fresh and in season. I enjoy walking around different produce aisles and farmers markets looking for the best produce to enjoy.

My kids and I usually pick our own strawberries at our local orchard in May, then move to blackberries and peaches in the summer, and apples in the fall. Amongst other things, I’m really missing that this year while being quarantined at home.

Changing my ‘how’

I know that this is minuscule on the scale of what’s happening in our world right now. But, in my personal world, feeding my eyes nutrient-rich fruits and veggies is really important to me. I have decided that I wasn’t going to let this quarantine change this about my daily routine. I just have to change my HOW.

Eating right to our preserve sight

Eating salad alone can’t prevent the onset of macular degeneration or stop vision loss, but it sure can help keep our eyes as healthy as they can be so they have what they need to keep seeing for us! This isn’t something I’m really willing to give up, but keeping up with it can sometimes feel like a challenge while trying to social distance.

Salads are packed full of nutrients

Want to know why I love salads so much? They pack a ton of nutrients in one sitting! I literally feel that if I do nothing else every day that is productive, eating a salad for the sake of my eye health is an accomplishment!

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good salad, I don't have to force myself to eat them. I even crave them sometimes! Salads are delicious and diverse and when prepared correctly can be easy grab-and-go meals! It isn't always so easy to eat them nowadays, and I know that not everyone is in love with salads like I am.

The most important thing about salads for all of us is that they have the potential to give us most (if not all) of the nutrients our eyes need each day...in one shot! They can be catered to each individual's likes as well as what each of us has available to us during times of quarantine.

Salads are diverse

Salads are not just lettuce and dressing. Salads can contain no lettuce at all, but pasta and veggies instead! They can be made from lutein and zeaxanthin-rich spinach or arugula, or they can be made from romaine or butter lettuce. They can have hard-boiled eggs, grilled chicken, or taco meat for protein...or not...depending on what you like! They can even be made from fruit.

Quick tip: If you’re wondering which type of lettuce is ‘best’ for eye health, check out this article.

Use what you have

Another thing I really love about salads is that they can be made out of whatever you like or have on hand. This is especially important right now, as we are all spending a lot more time at home, trying not to go to the store to get things unless we really need them.

Before COVID-19, I went to the store almost daily to grab fresh things that I needed for dinner or to grab what sounded delicious. If I wanted a Caprese pasta salad but didn’t have tomatoes, I’d go grab some! That isn't really possible right now, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to skip my salad today.

Quarantine pasta salad

Since I can’t do that anymore, and tomatoes are a luxury only to be enjoyed after a long-awaited and carefully planned trip to the grocery store, I have learned to start improvising. I recently made a Caprese-like pasta salad that didn’t even have tomatoes in it, and it was delicious!

Here’s how I made it:

1. I boiled some boxed whole wheat pasta (I have plenty of this stocked up) and let it cool.
2. I diced up the veggies I did have: an orange bell pepper, a cucumber, green Manzanilla olives, turkey pepperoni, a third of a block of Colby jack cheese, and a small onion.
3. I threw all of my chopped ‘things’ into my cooled pasta, added pepper, garlic salt, parmesan cheese, and some Italian salad dressing and stirred it up.

My bell pepper was moldy

If I'm being completely transparent here, I really needed to use up some of the veggies I had in the fridge before they went bad. My family called my pasta salad fancy, but I’m going to tell you a quarantine secret. The orange bell pepper I used was on its way out to the trash (I cut off the soft part and the bottom which had a little bit of mold growing on the inside). Half of the cucumber was squishy, and I needed the onion for something else I was making so that part had a dual purpose. I literally opened the fridge and pantry, grabbed what I thought would be semi-edible in a pasta salad, and threw it in. Win, win!

Fruit salad

I also like to make fruit salad often. My kids LOVE these! They’re really easy to make and last in the fridge for four to five days...IF they’re not gobbled up before then! My favorite easy-to-make fruit salad includes whatever I have on hand. Really.

My kids are on spring break from remote schooling right now and they’re sleeping in much later than usual. I knew I had some work to catch up on so I pre-made a fruit salad for them to eat for whenever they decided to finally come eat breakfast.

Quarantine style fruit salad

Today's fruit salad included a few sliced bananas (you know, the brown ones that are almost ready for banana bread), a diced apple, and some red seedless grapes. That's it!

Frozen fruits and veggies

Don't forget that frozen fruits and veggies make great smoothies and are easily stored in freezers for times like quarantine. They don't go bad as quickly and still pack the nutrients we need for our eyes. My favorite way to eat frozen fruits is in smoothies! Smoothies are also a great way to use up those brown bananas which are really sweet in flavor!

Supplementation of nutrients

This topic is an entire article series in itself, but I want to quickly mention that supplements exist partly for this reason. For example, I know that I for sure do not ingest enough Omega-3 fatty acids in my regular diet because I don't like seafood. Knowing this, I choose to supplement this nutrient in pill form.

It's really important to know your own needs and to discuss nutrient supplementation with your doctor. I also know that I personally shouldn't take zinc, so I steer clear of that supplement. If you're unable to eat fresh greens right now because of quarantine, you may want to consider supplementing eye-healthy lutein and zeaxanthin if you don't already.

Remember, you just have to change your 'how'.

Andrea Junge