Eating Salads Can Make You Fat

 

Eating Salad Could Be Making You Fat!

 

America's Worst Salads
It takes a uniquely American brand of innovation to transform a healthy helping of produce into a green monster.

 

No meal on the planet carries a healthier reputation than salad, and because of that, our fast food merchants know they can hide gobs of fat-riddled toppings amidst the foliage. So most of today's salad entrees are swimming in as much fat and sodium as a heaping plate of cheese fries -- and that's before the greens are drowned in dressing.

 

Looking to capitalize on our belief in the almighty leaf, restaurants and fast-food chains have loaded their menus with dubious salads, and diners are grazing away, like sheep before the slaughter. Reports from the National Restaurant Association and the USDA show salad sales up by as much as 50% over the past decade.

So how did the salad leap from a nutritional boon to a full-blown health hazard? Over the past decade the restaurant industry has surreptitiously merged our growing affinity for greens with two other scary restaurant trends -- bigger portions and more fried foods.

 

That's why today's fresh produce increasingly is freighted with more crumbled cheese, greasy bacon, pan-browned beef, and oily dressing. The one-time rabbit food now looks a lot more like pig slop.

 

Chili's Caesar Salad w/ Grilled Chicken and Caesar Dressing

  930 calories
  71 g fat (13 g saturated)
  1,840 mg sodium

 

The top three words you never want to see sharing a space with "salad" on a menu: tuna, taco, and yes, the mighty Caesar. Consider that tangle of romaine a hapless vehicle for the troubling trinity of croutons, parmesan cheese, and viscous Caesar dressing. Chili's version is the worst; the elephantine portion yields a salad with more fat than a dozen Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches from Breyers. (Maybe Brutus was right to take a knife to him, after all.)

 

Chili's Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad

  1,070 calories

  78 g fat (15 g saturated)
  4,440 mg sodium

 

This twisted new concoction earns the dubious distinction of being America's Saltiest Salad, packing more sodium in a single bowl than you'll find in 77 cups of buttered popcorn. How can they possibly cram so much salt into a pile of greens? Simple, by mixing chunks of fried chicken with some of the food world's most sodium-riddled conspirators: wing sauce, crumbled bacon, bleu cheese, and fried tortilla strips.

 

Quiznos Chicken with Honey Mustard Flatbread Salad

  1,110 calories
  74 g fat (14.5 g saturated)
  2030 mg sodium

 

Surprised to see a Quizno's salad with nearly as many calories as five packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups? Don't be. Half the salads on the menu top 1,000 calories, and 330 of those calories come from the flatbread alone. (See if Quizno's and your other favorite eateries make the grade with this handy Restaurant Report Card.  If you don’t see their chart posted, ask for it.

 

Macaroni Grill Seared Sea Scallops Salad

  1,320 calories
  91 g fat (25 g saturated)
  2,860 mg sodium

Macaroni Grill manages to take two normally healthy food -- salad and seafood -- and turn them into the caloric equivalent of 29 Chicken McNuggets. Not to mention more than one day's worth of sodium, fat, and saturated fat. There's an important lesson here: Sea creatures, just like leafy greens, are at grave risk when they fall into the hands of the restaurant industry.

 

T.G.I. Friday's Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad

  1360 calories
  Fat: Unknown (The company refuses to disclose the nutritional content of the food they're serving you.)
  Sodium:  Turns out Friday's monster salads aren't much better than their burgers.

 

Six out of the seven we analyzed topped out with more than 900 calories, which means that lunchtime can be the start of something big -- namely, your belly.

 

Chevy's Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken
  1,551 calories
  94 g fat (37 g saturated)
  2,840 mg sodium

 

Steer clear of Mexican-themed salads; they invariably suffer from the caloric impact of fried tortillas, shredded cheese, and ice-cream-size scoops of sour cream. This particular Mex mess has nearly two days' worth of saturated fat and more than an entire day's sodium.

 

Salad Hall of Fame
Now that you've been warned of the greenest nutrition follies in the nation, here are seven salads worthy of their healthy reputation.

 

McDonald's Premium Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken

  300 calories
  10 g fat (1 g saturated)  890 mg sodium

Panera Classic Cafe Salad

  400 calories
  11 g fat (1.5 g saturated)
  270 mg sodium

Au Bon Pain Butternut Squash Salad

  280 calories
  6 g fat (4 g saturated)
  570 mg sodium

Jack in the Box Southwest Chicken Salad with Grilled Chicken Strips

  310 calories
  12 g fat (5 g saturated)
  840 mg sodium

Carl's Jr. Charbroiled Chicken Salad

  330 calories

 

By David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding

Sources:  MSNBC.com & MensHealth.com

You should always check the nutrition chart, especially at fast food restaurants before ordering.  Often making the fish or chicken sandwich choice is no healthier than the burger you really wanted.

 

Posted:  Marion's Place - Eating Salads Can Make You Fat 

 

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