Sandwiches seem like  a low-calorie snack that can be consumed without guilt, whenever you experience in-between-meals hunger pangs. You'd think a salad sandwich would be a treat for weight watchers. Beware. All sandwich preparations may not be low cal.

Get Ahead fitness expert Samreedhi Sharma compares the calorie count of the popular Russian Salad sandwich with the regularly consumed vegetable sandwich.

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One Russian Salad sandwich

342 calories (11 gm fat) = Playing badminton for one hour

Don't be misled by the word 'salad sandwich' into believing this is a healthy snack option!

Russian salad sandwiches usually contain loads of butter, as well as mayonnaise, to give it that creamy, sweet 'n' salty flavour. Though it contains vegetables like French beans, lettuce, peas and carrots, there really is no point in having them with such a high amount of fat.

Sandwiches are a good choice for breakfast or an evening snack. If you don't fancy restaurant food all the time but don't have time to make meals for yourself, you can, using a little innovation, come up with exciting sandwich recipes.

Instead of mayonnaise, use the same combination of vegetables and add hung curd (hang curd overnight in a muslin to drain the whey) with a dash of salt and pepper, and voila, you have a tasty low cal substitute for mayonnaise!

Other options include tomato or coriander chutney, or even home made salsa, as a low fat sandwich spread.

One vegetable sandwich

260 calories (7.8 gm fat) = Playing badminton for 44 minutes

This is the most common chutney-with-butter sandwich, which uses vegetable combinations of tomato, cucumber, potato and onions. It is a reasonably healthy option when compared to other high fat sandwiches with mayonnaise or the fried snacks available.

If you want to further cut down calories, ask for the sandwich minus butter and potato. Or else, ask for butter only on one side of the bread. If the option is available, choose brown bread.

Health tips:

• Sandwiches can be a good choice for breakfast or as a quick evening snack.
• If you keep your cereal intake down to five servings per day for women and six-seven servings per day for men, one sandwich a day can be fitted into your diet plan.
• Avoid fattening sandwich spreads like mayonnaise, cheese spreads or too much butter.
• If you are going to a wedding or dinner, you can have a sandwich and a fruit before leaving -- this will help you control your food intake.

-- The author is a nutritionist and a certified personal trainer. She runs Size Wise, a training studio, and also conducts fitness workshops. Besides training with the International Sports Science Association, USA, she has a PG Diploma in nutrition and food technology and writes for a number of publications. 

Do you have any interesting recipes for low-cal sandwiches? Share them with us.

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