Better nutritional information and a push for healthy eating has caused many Americans to pass on the greasy burger and fries and order a salad instead. Just about every fast food and restaurant chain has expanded their salad and “light & healthy” menus to accommodate those of us who may be watching our weight and trying to eat healthier foods. Unfortunately, just because you find it on the salad menu, does not make it “light” or “healthy”.
We all go to McDonald’s knowing that the burger and fries is packed with fat and calories. Some may feel inclined to hit the gym afterwards to burn some of that off. Either way, we know it’s not the best for our waistline or our arteries. Many American’s who eat lunch out everyday are well aware that too much fat in your diet may eventually kill you and turn to what they believe are healthier alternatives.
Lets take a look…
As a starting point One of the larger burgers at McDonald’s is the Quarter pounder with cheese. It comes in at 510 calories, 230 of those from fat and accounts for 40% of your total recommended fat intake for the day. Add some fries to that. McDonald’s Medium french fries contain 380 calories, 170 from fat and add another 29% to your total recommended fat intake for the day. In total, that drive thru meal contains 890 calories and 69% of the recommended fat intake for the day.
Now, for the salads. The following are off the menu of large restaurant chains in the U.S.
T.G.I.Friday’s Santa Fe Chopped Salad
This salad contains fried tortilla strips and a whopping 1,800 calories. This concoction should be ashamed to even be put it the salad section. The chipotle ranch dressing makes it an artery clogging, diet disaster, disguised as a “salad”. Get the giant extra value meal from any fast food joint and save yourself a few calories.
The Chili’s Mesquite Chicken Salad with Dressing
Sounds healthy… right? Not so much. The Chili’s Mesquite Chicken salad has 1050 calories and 3110 mg’s of sodium. Thats almost 1000 mg’s of sodium over the recommended daily amount of 2400. Maybe you should skip the salad and eat a BigMac instead which has about 540 calories.
Chili’s Chicken Caesar Salad with Dressing
The chicken Caesar has chicken, ciabatta croutons, shaved Parmesan and Caesar dressing. It also has 1010 calories and 1910 mg’s of sodium. Yikes! Walking burns off about 170 calories an hour, so it would take over 5 hours of walking to burn off that salad.
Chili’s Grilled BBQChicken salad
Well they do describe this as grilled… thats good… right? Not so much, again. Grilled BBQ Chicken Salad has 1050 calories and 2160 mg’s of sodium. At least the day you eat this you can still add a bit of salt to dinner, a few % are left. This salad contains around 95% of the recommended daily allowance.
BTW, to make it into Chili’s “Guiltless” menu, the entree must have no more that 750 calories. The above salads do not make it onto the guiltless menu but a Big Mac, Whopper, Cheese Pizza and steak absolutely would!
Friday’s pecan-crusted chicken salad
The salad is served with mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and celery. That doesn’t sound too bad… but this does. It also has 1,360 calories. Skip the salad and have a Whopper instead (670 calories)
Boston Market’s Chicken Caesar Salad
This Caesar salad has 800 calories and a stunning 62 grams of fat (who would have thunk it) . That is almost an entire day’s worth of fat. Just like the others, a better diet choice maybe 2 slices of Pizza Hut pizza which has 250 fewer calories.
Applebee’s Grilled Steak Ceasar Salad no toast
The Applebee’s salad contains 1190 calories. Over 1/2 from fat (679). This one also is loaded with sodium containing 81% of the recommended daily allowance, 1951 mg’s. Also, this one has an artery clogging 114% of the RDA for saturated fat at 22.8 mg’s.
Would you like the toast it comes with? hey, its only another 100 or so calories. Maybe you can get like 3 pieces of that toast to fill up, that way you will not want to eat the salad and save yourself the 3 hours on the treadmill.
California Pizza Kitchen’s Thai Crunch Salad with Fresh Avocado
This fresh sounding salad has 1,399 calories. Maybe it’s the fried wonton strips it’s topped with? Either way it’s almost the same as eating an entire medium pizza by yourself. A slice of pepperoni from Pizza Hut is 200 to 250 calories, depending on crust. Do your diet a favor, skip the Thai Crunch salad and eat 2 slices of pizza instead!
Applebee’s Santa Fe Chicken no dresing
Yep, this one isn’t even dressed yet and already has an astounding 900 calories 900 and 2140 mg’s of sodium. Without any creamy dressing this salad already contains 83% of total fat and 90% of saturated fat for the day. Now the Applebee’s Bacon Cheeseburger has 608 calories.
The Habit Santa Barbara Cobb
Oh, I love this one, really. Whats not to love? bacon, blue cheese, avocado… and about 850 calories, most from fat (610), it’s 103% of the RDA. Yep, it’s a heart attack in a salad bowl. Really, who would think you can get a day + worth of fat from 1 bowl of salad.
The Biggest Offenders: Chef’s salad, Cobb Salad and anything Crunchy
These are the top diet offenders. Crunchy usually means fried. Cobb and Chef’s salads are usually filled with very fatty meats, cheeses, creamy dressings, nuts and buttery croûtons. Many people dieting will skip the bacon on a burger, yet have it on their salad. I guess there is something in the word salad that comforts one into thinking they are cutting calories, therefore assuming that a little bacon, cheese and meat added to a salad is O.K.
A typical chef’s salad, with low fat dressing has 900 calories and over 70 grams of fat. A typical Cobb, with chicken, bacon, blue cheese and avocado can easily run around 1000+ calories, and thats without the dressing.
When choosing a healthy salad, make sure it is made of greens and veggies only, adding a bit of grilled chicken is OK also. Most fast food joints such as McDonald’s actually offer low calorie salads. The McDonald’s Grilled Chicken, Bacon Ranch (yes, it has a touch of bacon)only has 270 calories undressed. Add some low fat dressing for a total of 300 calories for the meal. Obviously, the portions will not be as big as the sit down restaurant counterparts, but you may feel better after eating it.
I’m glad I am seeing the calorie counts on many menus these days… it’s been an eye opener for sure.
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