[Meg]

Good article at msnbc.com about how deceptive salads can be when it comes to calories and five ways to keep them healthy: 5 rules to make the best low-calorie salads

You’re trying to “eat light” and “watch your weight,” but watch out for salads! That’s right salads. For example, a Classic Cobb Salad with chopped bacon, egg, blue cheese, avocado, and creamy dressing, or standard restaurant Chef Salad loaded with Swiss cheese, roast beef, eggs, and dressing can contain more than 1,000 calories and 80 grams fat! For some people, that’s more than half their day’s worth of calories (and all their fat).

[kykaree]

Great article. Here in the UK there was a lot of publicity about a pizza chain here that had salads that had more calories than a big mac.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1392619,00.html

My dh always thinks that salads are the healthiest option whether they're covered in blue cheese dressing with half a side of bacon on them

[LLV]

Originally Posted by kykaree

My dh always thinks that salads are the healthiest option whether they're covered in blue cheese dressing with half a side of bacon on them

Believing this for so many years is one of the things that led me to weighing 220 pounds

Salads can be evil and deceitful. Yep. In some cases you're better off eating a burger and fries. Cobbs and Chefs are REALLY bad. Bacon, cheese, whole egg, all the little things that add up the fat and cholesterol. Not to mention sodium.

If I get a take-home salad, I always modify them a bit by using my own dressing and taking off fattening items and adding my own healthy ones. If I must absolutely use restaurant salad dressing, I always ask for light. I never go fat-free. The little bit of fat in the dressing, so they say, is what helps your body absorb the nutrients from the vegetables.

That and I can't stand fat-free salad dressing, lol.

[WaterRat]

Thanks for the article Meg.

I keep a bottle of my favorite ff dressing (Lighthouse Sesame Ginger) at work as well as at home, plus a tablespoon to measure it with! Then when I get a salad at the grocery store I'm not tempted to use their dressing (plus, one of the grocerie's charges for dressing!) I don't like bacon much, and avoid the cheese, so I'm able to keep my salads in the clean eating range! I often grill an extra chicken breast or two for cutting up in salads, or I add beans or egg for protein. I am guilty of adding avocado if I find a good one.

When I go out to lunch with my GFs on Friddays, I often order what's called an oriental chicken salad (we only have 3 places to choose from, so I know what I'll have before I get there ). I leave off the chow mein noodles, and get the dressing on the side. I use just a little plus vinegar. Except that it's nearly all iceberg lettuce, it's a decent choice. Lots of other veggies - chopped green onions, cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, carrots - and of course grilled chicken.

[LLV]

I've got a nice salad for myself for lunch today. Topped the lettuce with chopped tomatoes, cucumber slices, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of garbanzo beans, onion, carrot, sliced sweet potato sticks (I buy bags of sweet potato sticks from the produce section of Wal-Mart) and a 4oz. grilled chicken breast.

Yum!