My mother is always looking for recipes and foods to help our family stay healthy. From vegetable pasta to low calorie salads to fruit-filled sandwiches, my mother has made it her mission to stuff my family with vitamins and nutrients.

In order to do that, she has searched for sauces and dressings that taste good and that make us want to eat our vegetables. She has even made her own secret sauce recipe that is for all different kinds of salads. She makes it with ingredients that benefit our health. It tastes so good that my sister and I, who were once unapologetic salad haters, now, crave salad.

One of the main ingredients of my mother’s secret sauce is olive oil. Olive oil is loaded with vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, vitamin K, iron, calcium, and potassium, and antioxidants. Two tablespoons a day help you to be more resistant to strokes and heart attacks. After eating olive oil, you tend to feel satisfied and eat less because you have fewer sugar cravings.

Another ingredient is apple cider vinegar. It may be really harsh to the throat, even burning, when taken alone, but can be diluted or cooked with. It helps your body fight against diabetes, cancer, and high cholesterol. It also makes your heart healthier and helps with weight loss. People have even used apple cider vinegar as a remedy for indigestion and lowering fevers for years.

Brown sugar is also in the secret sauce. Because it has slightly fewer calories than white sugar, it is more effective in preventing obesity. Brown sugar is made out of sugarcane, which is grown with minimum (if any) chemical usage. According to organic-sugar.com, most other sugars are grown from chemicals.

The final ingredient, soy sauce, is widely regarded as a salty food, but it is also rich in vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium.

If I’ve learned anything from my mother’s recipes, it’s that boring and unexciting foods can become astonishingly awesome with certain sauces and dressings. Thanks to her, I eat all of my fruits and vegetables.