Tip of the Week

Roll with the punches! Life is gonna smack you right in the face when you don't expect it. If you're head's on straight, you're certainly gonna handle it just fine. Roll with it. Complain a little bit, and let it go.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Truth Tuesday: Salads are healthy?

It’s too often that the salads at your favorite restaurant are as bad as anything else on the menu. Fresh produce is weighed down with cheese, deep fried croutons or tortilla strips, and slathered in oily dressing. How is it that restaurants are able to make dangerously oversize salads and sell them to the kind of customer who wouldn’t even dream of eating a cheeseburger? Simple: They use public perception against the public. People assume salads are healthy—or at least that they’re healthier than cheeseburgers and pizza. Turns out that with today’s heavy-handed techniques, that assumption is wrong as often as it is right.




Applebee's Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad
1,040 calories
11 g saturated fat
2,380 mg sodium
Half of the salads on Applebee’s menu break the 1,000-calorie barrier, making them just as dubious as any other menu item. If a field of greens is calling your name, limit yourself to a half order, or choose the Weight Watchers Grilled Chili-Lime Chicken Salad—it’s the only salad with fewer than 700 calories.
Eat This Instead!
Steak and Grilled Shrimp
390 calories
6 g saturated fat
1,890 mg sodium




Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Salad with Black Beans, Red Salsa, Cheese, and Chipotle-Honey Vinaigrette
720 calories
41.5 g fat (11 g saturated)
2,010 mg sodium
If you're seeking solace in salads at Chipotle, be sure to pass on the one and only vinaigrette on the menu. With 260 calories and 25 grams of fat, it has three times more calories than the most caloric salsa at Chipotle. Your best bet is to turn the tangy green salsa (just 15 calories per serving) into your dressing and spend the 245 calories you save elsewhere.
Eat This Instead!
Barbacoa Burrito Bowl with black beans, cheese, lettuce, and tomato salsa

410 calories
17 g fat (8 g saturated)
1,410 mg sodium

Panera Bread Half Sierra Turkey with Half Greek Salad You Pick Two Combo
810 calories
59 g fat (12 g saturated)
1,870 mg sodium

The You Pick Two option may be the best option on Panera’s lunch menu, but that doesn’t mean trouble isn’t still lurking. This seemingly healthy combo packs nearly a full day’s worth of fat. Instead try the Half Asiago Roast Beef with Black Bean Soup. This combo matches one of the best sandwiches with the healthiest soup on the menu.

Eat This Instead!
Half Asiago Roast Beef with Black Bean Soup

450 calories
17 g fat
1,510 mg sodium

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

how informative. gracias!