We all know that munching on more vegetables is good for us, but let's be honest, we're all guilty of buying veggies and leaving them to rot in the back of our fridges because we forget we ever put them there.
But according to a cooking expert, there's actually an easy way to make your salad last for up to four days longer than normal - and it's free to do if you happen to own a SodaStream.
SodaStream machines are traditionally used for making carbonated drinks, as they pump carbon dioxide into a liquid to make it fizzy. But if you put a few pumps of carbon dioxide into a bag of lettuce and seal it shut, it will help keep your greens fresh for up to nine days - as opposed to the usual five days your salad would last.
Cook's Illustrated posted the hack on their Instagram account @cooksillustrated, where they wrote: "Carbonating water isn't the only thing your soda maker can do. Use it to expel carbon dioxide into a bag of greens, and they'll last a whole lot longer (5 days versus 9 days)."
The experts explained the trick in more detail in a blog post, where they stated they put the hack to the test by putting two bags of lettuce into their fridge and filled one with carbon dioxide from a soda maker, to see which would last the longest.
They wrote: "To find out, we divided lettuces from the same package into two bags. We inflated one with carbon dioxide expelled from a soda machine and left the other as is.
"The upshot: The bag of greens with the carbon dioxide from the soda maker lasted almost twice as long (5 days versus 9 days) before showing signs of significant wilting."
What's more, Cook's Illustrated even claimed that if you don't own a SodaStream or other soda maker, you can make the trick work using a tool all of us have - our own breath.
We expel carbon dioxide when we breathe out, so all you have to do is breathe into a bag of lettuce before you seal it, and it will have a similar effect to the SodaStream.
However, it's far less hygienic, and not recommended if you're not the only one eating the lettuce.
Commenters on the post were blown away by the hack, with some saying they had no idea.
One person wrote: "This is why I follow you guys. Love these kinds of hacks."
While another said: "Fascinating. Guess I need to dust off the old soda stream and bring it out of retirement!"
And a third joked: "This is great. Now I can keep them for two weeks in the back of the fridge before throwing them out."
Even SodaStream themselves commented on the post, as they wrote: "Just another benefit of owning a SodaStream!"
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