Not Every Salad is Diet-Friendly The infamous salad bar, available everywhere from work cafeterias to family restaurants, can round out a meal with a wholesome side dish, or be a meal all by itself. What could be more healthy and nutritious? Those vegetables and fruits can be loaded with a variety of nutrients, including beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, potassium, folic acid and fiber.
However, the salad bar can also be filled with dangerous landmines, ready to blow your calorie intake to smithereens! In fact, if you’re not careful, you can innocently fill that salad plate with items that add up to over 1,000 calories—more than a burger and fries or a steak and potato dinner!
Take the safe path and apply these strategies to avoid salad bar traps:
Use a smaller plate; limit the number of trips you make.
Start with the nutrient-rich dark green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, romaine, and endive.
Fill up your plate with vegetables like lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli and tomatoes.
Power on the protein with legumes, beans, lean meat, turkey, and crabmeat.
Take only a small taste of the high-fat food items such as pasta salad, potato salad, macaroni salad, and coleslaw.
Go easy on extras like croutons, chow mein noodles, crackers, nuts, seeds, crumbled bacon, and shredded cheeses.
Dress your salad for success with 2 tablespoons of a low-calorie or light salad dressing, OR only 1 tablespoon of regular salad dressing. For a new taste twist try a splash of flavored vinegar.
If the salad bar contains soups, go for a broth-based version over a cream-style selection.
Allow only a small taste of the whipped topping-Jell-O-fruit combinations.
For dessert, return to the salad bar for a small plate of fruit topped with a little yogurt or cottage cheese
Fast Food Salads: Are They Really A Better Choice? While most people think that the salads offered at fast food restaurants are healthy, nutritious choices, the truth may be quite different. Fast food salads vary widely in the nutrition category. While some salads are reasonable choices, many fast food restaurants soup up their salads with a variety of less-healthy, fat- and sodium-laden items, such as fried chicken, creamy full fat dressings, sour cream, and lots of cheese, bacon, nuts, fried croutons, and taco chips or shells. Less prevalent or completely absent are the nutritious, high-fiber salad items such as beans, chick peas, and a wide variety of fresh vegetables. Here’s a brief comparison of the nutritional news from several popular salads, as compared to a basic burger-and-fries meal at the top fast food restaurants:
Rating the New Fast-Food and Quick-Serve Salad Entrees
The latest marketing trend in the fast food industry is the salad entree, promoted as a "healthy" alternative to fatty burgers and fries. But how healthy are these salads?
To see how they stack up nutritionally, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) analyzed them based on five dietary measures. One star was given for meeting each of the following criteria, with five stars signifying the highest rating.
One star for = 13 g fat
One star for = 4.5 g saturated fat
One star for = 50 mg of cholesterol
One star for = 3 g of fiber
One star for = 1,000 mg of sodium
Each salad was rated using two ounces of the dressing that it is served with or, if no dressing is recommended, the lowest-fat dressing on the menu.
PCRM rated the salad entrees offered at Au Bon Pain, Burger King, McDonald's, Panera, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy's.
Additionally, PCRM reviewed the amount of calories in each salad. Although calorie content was not one of the five formal criteria, nutritionists highlighted those salads with particularly high calorie content in the written descriptions below.
The report's results were quite surprising. Only two out of 34 salads received all five stars. Most of the salads were no more healthful than a burger without the bun, dipped in salad dressing. And clear patterns emerged. Salads that relied on fresh vegetables received top billing whereas salads heavy with meat, cheese, or dressing fell flat.
Most shocking of all, McDonald's Crispy Bacon Ranch Salad has more fat and calories and just as much cholesterol as a Big Mac.
Unfortunately, very few salads relied on beans (chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans) as a healthy source of protein. A popular item on salad bars, beans would have significantly boosted fiber. If restaurants would replace high-fat toppings, such as chicken and cheese, with cholesterol-free, high-fiber legumes, many more salads would receive five stars.
Rating the New Fast-Food and Quick-Serve Salad Entrees
The latest marketing trend in the fast food industry is the salad entree, promoted as a "healthy" alternative to fatty burgers and fries. But how healthy are these salads? To see how they stack up nutritionally, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) analyzed them based on five dietary measures. One star was given for meeting each of the following criteria, with five stars signifying the highest rating.
One star for = 13 g fat
One star for = 4.5 g saturated fat
One star for = 50 mg of cholesterol
One star for = 3 g of fiber
One star for = 1,000 mg of sodium
Each salad was rated using two ounces of the dressing that it is served with or, if no dressing is recommended, the lowest-fat dressing on the menu. PCRM rated the salad entrees offered at Au Bon Pain, Burger King, McDonald's, Panera, Subway, Taco Bell and Wendy's. Additionally, PCRM reviewed the amount of calories in each salad. Although calorie content was not one of the five formal criteria, nutritionists highlighted those salads with particularly high calorie content in the written descriptions below. The report's results were quite surprising. Only two out of 34 salads received all five stars. Most of the salads were no more healthful than a burger without the bun, dipped in salad dressing. And clear patterns emerged. Salads that relied on fresh vegetables received top billing whereas salads heavy with meat, cheese, or dressing fell flat. Most shocking of all, McDonald's Crispy Bacon Ranch Salad has more fat and calories and just as much cholesterol as a Big Mac. Unfortunately, very few salads relied on beans (chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans) as a healthy source of protein. A popular item on salad bars, beans would have significantly boosted fiber. If restaurants would replace high-fat toppings, such as chicken and cheese, with cholesterol-free, high-fiber legumes, many more salads would receive five stars.
Fast-Food and Quick-Serve Salad Entrees
Au BonPain
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Caesar Salad
12
6
30
4
450
4 Stars
Charbroiled Salmon Filet & Yellow Peppers Salad
7
1
50
2
215
4 Stars
Chef's Salad
15
7
65
3
1370
1 Star
Chicken Caesar Salad
14
7
70
4
800
2 Stars
Cobb Salad
22
10
220
8
1640
1 Star
Garden Salad
4
1
0
5
480
5 Stars
Mediterranean Chicken Salad
12
3
50
3
1090
4 Stars
Mozzarella & Red Pepper Salad
25
16
90
2
460
1 Star
Nicoise Salad
16
3
245
4
1030
2 Stars
Thai Chicken Salad
8
.05
45
4
1460
4 Stars
Tomato & Mozzarella with Basil Pesto
19
11
60
3
260
2 Stars
Tuna Salad
25
4
10
6
960
4 Stars
Burger King
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Chicken Caesar Salad with Creamy Caesar Dressing, Croutons, and Parmesan Cheese
27
7
70
3
1850
1 Star
McDonald's
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Crispy Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad with Newman's Own Ranch Dressing
51
11.5
85
3
1570
1 Star
Crispy Chicken Caesar Salad with Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing and Croutons
35.5
8
70
3
1530
1 Star
Crispy Chicken California Cobb Salad with Newman's Own Cobb Dressing
32
8.5
135
3
1610
1 Star
Grilled Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad with Newman's Own Ranch Dressing
43
9.5
95
3
1360
1 Star
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad with Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing and Croutons
56.5
7
80
3
1320
1 Star
Grilled Chicken California Cobb Salad with Newman's Own Cobb Salad
23
7.5
140
3
1400
1 Star
Panera
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Asian Sesame Chicken Salad
15
4*
60
4
1070
2 Stars
Caesar Salad
26
7.2*
110
3
1130
1 Star
Classic Cafe Salad
36
2.7*
0
4
340
4 Stars
Fandango Salad
28
5.3*
25
7
410
3 Stars
Greek Salad
45
16*
10
5
1850
2 Stars
Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
27
7.3*
170
3
1620
1 Star
* The data for these values were either incorrect on the restaurant's Web site, or were not available. Therefore we calculated the values by using the nutrient analysis program Nutritionist V.
Subway
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Meatball Salad with Fat-Free Italian Dressing
20
9
55
4
1660
1 Star
Subway Club Salad with Fat-Free Italian Dressing
3.5
1.5
35
3
1720
4 Stars
Veggie Delite Salad with Fat-Free Italian Dressing
1
0
0
3
920
5 Stars
Taco Bell
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Taco Salad with Salsa
51
14
60
13
1760
1 Star
Taco Salad with Salsa (without shell)
21
10
60
13
1500
1 Star
Wendy's
Salad
Fat (g)
Saturated Fat (g)
Cholesterol (mg)
Fiber (g)
Sodium (mg)
Number of stars
Chicken BLT Salad with Homestyle Garlic Croutons and Honey Mustard Dressing
47.5
12.5
85
4
1630
1 Star
Mandarin Chicken Salad with Roasted Almost, Crispy Rice Noodles, and Oriental Sesame Dressing
36.5
4.5
59.5*
5
1520
2 Stars
Spring Mix Salad with Honey-Roasted Pecans and House Vinaigrette Dressing
44
10
30
7
1125
2 Stars
Taco Supremo Salad with Taco Chips, Sour Cream, and Salsa
34
15.5
80
10
1695
1 Star
So, what’s a hungry person to do? Here are some suggestions for doctoring up the available salads to optimize their nutritional statistics:
Beware Deceptive Information While all of the fast food restaurants have nutritional information available on all of their menu offerings, some of the information can be a bit misleading. For example, some of the information only gives nutritional statistics on the actual salad, leaving off the information about dressing, croutons, cheese, or other packets of ingredients that are included with your salad. Make sure you read the information carefully.
Remember: An Iceberg Sank the Titanic Choose more complex greens than plain old iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce is calorie-free, but it’s also nearly nutrition- and fiber-free. Worst of all, it’s essentially flavor-free, leading you down the path to high-fat temptation by encouraging you to add more flavorful (and higher fat, sodium, and calorie) ingredients to your salad in order to make it more palatable and satisfying.
Paint With A Broad Palette of Color The greater the variety of colors in the vegetables in your salad, the greater the variety of nutrients. Go for a wide variety of greens (including different types of lettuces, spinach, and peppers), oranges (carrots), and reds (tomatoes and red peppers).
Skip the Meat Try ordering your salad without meat. Or, if you really want the meat, choose to have it grilled (not fried) and consider eating only half of what’s included with your salad.
Remember: Dynamite Comes In Small Packages So if you want to avoid exploding your healthy eating plan, say no to those little packets of parmesan cheese, croutons, or Chinese noodles. They may look innocent (and yummy), but these extras are a serious source of fat, calories, and sodium. Ask your server to leave them off of your order—once you get them to your table, they’re just going to tempt you.
Don’t Douse, Dress Ask if there’s a low- or no-fat dressing available, and substitute that for the one that comes with the salad you’ve ordered. Use the smallest amount possible to flavor (not drench!) your salad. Some restaurants have plain packets of vinegar or lemon juice available; consider sprinkling these on your greens instead of dressing.
Inquiring Minds Want To Know. . . All of the major fast food restaurants have websites that detail the nutritional stats on each of their menu items. Read the available nutritional information about various fast food salads and other offerings. If you read about the choices in advance, and plan your attack, you might be more successful at making healthy choices.
Salad Bar Nutrition Chart Have you ever wondered how many calories and fat grams those sunflower seeds or olives add to your salad? The following chart from The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food and Nutrition Guide will help you be more salad savvy.
