Cucumber salad or rajma roti, which of the two has more fibre? A nutritionist answers

When it comes to fibre, there are certain foods that have better reputation than others and salad is one of them. But is salad the best source of fibre? Here's what a nutritionist has to say.

Experts recommend adding a lot of fibre to your diet for better gut health which also adds to the overall well-being. When it comes to fibre, there are certain foods that have better reputation than others and salad is one of them. Salad is considered a high-fibre food and many people consume it in large quantities thinking they have taken care of their daily fibre intake. Nutritionist Bhuvan Rastogi in his recent Instagram post busts myths around salad being the 'best source of fibre' and explains how a bowl of cooked rajma and a roti has more fibre than 2 cups of cut cucumber. (Also read: Nutritionist suggests easy ways to add fibre to your daily diet)

"I hear a lot about how salad is the best source of fibre, to the point many people are substituting a typical Indian meal plate with just a whole plate of salad to increase fibre intake," Rastogi writes in his recent Instagram post.

He went on to compare two cups of cut cucumber with half a cup of cooked rajma with 1 roti and shared the nutritional value of both foods.

Half a cup of rajma has 6g fibre

1 roti from 30g wheat has 3g fibre

On the other hand 2 cups of cut cucumber is just 1.6g fibre.

(as per USDA nutrition database)

Rastogi found out that just one roti has twice the amount of fibre of two cups of cucumber.

The nutritionist, however, is not surprised and elaborates how salads in western diet have more protein, legumes and other nutritional foods than Indian salads which mainly comprise of cucumber, onion and tomato.

"In western diet, fibre does come from salads. Their salads comprise of protein/ legumes / leaves etc. In the Indian diet, we easily eat about twice the amount of total fibre and most of it comes from unrefined grains and legumes. Salad to us meant kheera/ kakdi/ pyaaz which was never meant to be more than a side dish and never the major source of fibre. It is just supposed to be a good source of antioxidants," adds Rastogi.

The nutritionist says when you eat a plate of salad before meals, it leads to unhealthy weight loss as you tend to eat less.

"From now on when people ask you to have a plate full of salad like this before your meals, understand that it is not to get more fibre, but just a way to make you eat less, as they are mostly water (again something I don't support a lot, this is usually a trick to get fast and unhealthy weight loss results by extreme calorie deficit)," says Rastogi, who suggests having salads in moderation.

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