That Salad is Making You FAT!!

So here's the sad truth, a salad can have just as many or more calories than a hamburger. Plain and simple. We have all been there, we decide to go out and think "I will get a salad, those things are healthy, and then I will be sticking to my "diet"" but we are wrong... so wrong.

When you eat out you will be ingesting more calories than if you eat at home, 99% of the time. It's a fact. I took the liberty of looking up the nutrition info for popular places that offer a salad as a "healthy" choice. I was hard pressed to find a salad with dressing under 500 calories. You may be thinking "is that a lot?" Hell yes it's a lot! If we were talking about a sandwich I might say that's not horrible, but we are talking about a bowl of leafy greens, and when your calorie intake for the day is limited to 1200-1500, 500 towards a salad is quite a bit.

So here's the low down. Panera (one of my favorite places) serves some amazing salads, sadly those salads average between 440-700 calories. You do have the option to order a half salad, which would be less, but I doubt it would fill you up. Their BBQ Chicken is 480, not too shabby, and their Chicken Caesar is only 440. The Chicken Cobb with Avocado (my favorite) is 650 calories! Their Shrimp Soba Noodle Salad is 700.

McDonalds is slightly better with all their salads being under 300 calories with grilled chicken, and you have the option to choose a low fat italian or vinaigrette dressing leaving you under 400 calories for a light salad.

Chick Fil 'A tops out at 430 with their Cobb with grilled chicken, but if you add the suggested Avocado Lime dressing you have yourself a 750 calorie salad! Holy moly. Their lightest salad is their Market Salad and with the suggested dressing it is 410 calories.

Wendy's most calories ridden salad is their Baja Chili at 690 calories, and their lightest is the Apple Pecan at just 570 calories.

Sit down places are even worse, Outback's Aussie grilled chicken salad without dressing is 465 calories, add their amazing ranch dressing and you have yourself an 883 calorie salad! WTF, seriously people WTF. It's a salad.

Just to give you a comparison I make a salad at home that is 249 calories. 2 cups of mixed (radishes carrots and lettuce) salad, 2/3 cup of cherry tomatoes, 1/4 bell pepper, 1/4 cup 2% shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 a cucumber, and meat of my choice (2 oz albacore tuna, 1/2 cup cubed ham, or 2 oz sliced smoked turkey) around 70 calories, and 2 TBS of light ranch dressing.

So next time you think "I'll just get a salad" think again. Look up nutrition info before you leave your house, or on your smart phone on the go. Just make sure you know before you go. Salad is only a good choice when it's loaded with veggies, and a small portion of meat, with a light dressing. If it tastes too good to be true it probably is.