The Best Salad For Guys

That sounds a bit like it could be the beginning of a dirty joke.

But, no, Men's Health wants you to know that there is such a thing as a guy's salad and perhaps, not just that, but that it is the pinnacle of salads, especially for guys. Though, I must point out, that a guy's salad, does seem suspiciously like a salad eaten by many a woman. But here's to gender equality in the leafy green sector!

The thing is Men's Health is good to make it seem cool for a dude to eat salad, what with all the burgers and fries and real men-don't-eat-quiche kind of attitude that lingers over our collective consciousness like a bad hangover.

What is so great about this piece, is that it points out in detail the 12 best ingredients to make a salad that, in reality is good for any body (male or female) but reports that men who eat more than 60 grams of veggies a day, increase their life span by two years.

That's incentive enough! But look what the other benefits per ingredient are:

• spinach (one cup provides 58 mcg of folate which can help lower risk for heart disease by 13 percent)
• kidney beans (a quarter cup provides 3 grams of fiber, which lowers blood cholesterol levels)
• yellow bell pepper
• Swiss cheese (four cubes provides 26 IU of Vitamin D and 196 mg of magnesium which means you might have half the risk of stroke than men who consume less)
• carrots (a quarter cup has 1, 279 mcg of beta carotene which can slow age-related decline of lung power)
• olive oil (the monounsaturated fat might help raise testosterone levels)
• sunflower sees (just one tablespoon provides 8.35 mcg of selenium and men who have high levels of selenium have a 49 percent lower incidence of advanced prostate cancer than those with low levels)
• almonds (rich in a vitamin E, which can help reduce Alzheimer risk)
• cherry tomatoes (they contain loads of lycopene which can help reduce oxidative DNA damage to prostate tissues.
• tuna ( a three-ounce serving contains 11mg of niacin, which can help reduce cholesterol and assists your body in metabolizing fat)
• red lettuce (four leaves gives you a four-fold punch: antioxidants, vitamin K and the carotenoids which could help prevent macular degeneration by 43 percent)

Photo courtesy of Austin Evan@flickr.