Epicurean De-Lite: I was "good" and ordered a salad...

Friday, January 14, 2011

I was "good" and ordered a salad...

I hear this all the time from friends and clients who are trying to either lose weight, manage their cholesterol, or stay fit. They have just gone out to their favorite restaurant and are proud of what they just ate.  But when I hear which salad they ordered, it usually makes me cringe. Too many restaurant salads are not healthy, packing on way too many calories and containing a shocking amount of fat. For example, Quizno's Classic Cobb Flatbread Salad has 910 calories and 58 grams of fat. Baja Fresh's Charbroiled Steak Tostada Salad - 1,230 calories and 63 grams of fat. TGI Friday's Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad has 1,360 calories and would not disclose the amount of fat it contained. Romano's Macaroni Grill's Seared Sea Scallops Salad packs in a whopping 1,170 calories and 94 grams of fat. My favorite (gag!) is On The Border's Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef and Chipotle Honey Mustard - it has 1,700 calories and 124 grams of fat!!   OMG!!!   The list goes on and on.

Baja Fresh does have an Ensalada Charbroiled Shrimp salad with Fat Free Salsa Verde that has only 245 calories and 6 grams of fat. And Quizno's "side" salad with raspberry chipotle dressing has only 225 calories and 6 grams of fat. In the middle of the pack is Wendy's Mandarin Chicken Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, weighing in at 470 calories and 22 grams of fat (still a bit high to me...) These are great, but are they enough to be truly considered a "meal"?

My point is that, just because it is a "salad" does not mean it is healthy. Salads are usually served with fat-laden dressings, and often contain candied nuts, cheeses, sour cream, bacon, and, if it is a Mexican salad, fried tortilla strips. And the ones that are are really "healthy" are not filling.   Lettuce and other greens are good for you, but it would be wiser (and way more filling and nutritious) to order a lean meat (unless you are vegetarian) with rice and the vegetable of the day. In fact, I can provide suggestions for yummy and satisfying entrees to order from pretty much any type of restaurant. If you want a salad, order a "house" one with either Fat Free or Low Fat dressing or with a Balsamic Vinaigrette, and have the dressing "on the side".

Phew! It felt real good to get that one off my chest. Sorry for the length of the post, but, as I said, this is one of my pet peeves.   See you next time....AG

Note: Salad calorie and fat information obtained from "Refreshing News: Unhealthy Salads" - online site.

2 comments:

UnknownJanuary 18, 2011 at 6:25 AM
Good points! Making good choices at salad bars is really important too. Bacon bits, shredded cheese, macoroni salad and creamy dressings can ruin good intentions. I have a question - how many fat grams do you aim for in one day?
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AGJanuary 18, 2011 at 1:07 PM
A healthy adult should not exceed 65 grams of fat per day. And that is based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet. That would make about 30% of the diet fat. Someone with cardiac issues, a cancer survivor, or someone who is trying to lose weight should eat much less - fat should not exceed 20% of their diet. I try to keep fat to less than 30 grams per day, or 15% of my diet. The way to calculate how much fat you are getting is to record fat grams, multiply them by 9 (there are 9 calories per gram of fat) and divide the product by the total number of calories consumed that day. Let me know how you add up - I'm curious to know how much fat people consume on average. I know that before I cahnged my diet, about 50% of what I ate was fat!
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Friday, January 14, 2011

I was "good" and ordered a salad...

2 comments:

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