How Would Your Salad Score?
A salad bar may seem like the most potentially healthful piece of restaurant real estate, but it can quickly turn into a nutritional minefield. Depending on the ingredients you choose, a salad can be the healthiest thing in the world or it can contain more calories and fat than three Big Macs! When building a salad, start with a large bed of lettuce and add as many vegetables as you’d like. A cup of vegetables has only 25 calories. Things to look out for are cheese, croutons, seeds, avocado, and any prepared salads with mayonnaise which are loaded with fat and calories.
A salad done right is filled with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber. Your salad should be a combination of fiber (such as vegetables and beans) with lean protein (chicken, turkey, tuna, shrimp, crab, or lean meat). As I always say, “fiber and protein at every meal makes losing weight no big deal!”
It is the combination of fiber and protein that gives you long-term satiety and fills you up without filling you out. So the next time you have a salad for lunch, aim for add-ins from the “Best Picks” list below.
ENJOY!
|
Best Picks |
Fat grams (per 1 oz.) |
Calories (per 1 oz.) |
|
Beets |
<0.5 |
5 |
|
Broccoli |
<0.5 |
8 |
|
Carrots |
<0.5 |
12 |
|
Chickpeas |
<1.5 |
91 |
|
Grilled Chicken |
<1.0 |
35 |
|
Jicama |
<0.5 |
11 |
|
Parmesan Cheese |
3.5 |
54 |
|
Ranch Dressing (Low fat) |
5 |
64 |
|
Romaine Lettuce |
<0.5 |
5 |
|
Tomatoes |
<0.5 |
4 |
|
Worst Picks |
Fat grams (per 1 oz.) |
Calories (per 1 oz.) |
|
Bacon Bits |
12 |
154 |
|
Cheddar cheese |
9.5 |
114 |
|
Coleslaw |
3 |
42 |
|
Croutons |
5 |
132 |
|
Feta cheese |
6 |
78 |
|
Guacamole |
11 |
110 |
|
Macaroni Salad |
7 |
104 |
|
Ranch Dressing (full fat) |
15 |
140 |
|
Tuna Salad with Mayo |
29 |
160 |
Tanya Zuckerbrot, MS, RD is a nutritionist and founder of Skinnyandthecity.com. She is also the creator of The F-Factor Diet™, an innovative nutritional program she has used for more than ten years to provide hundreds of her clients with all the tools they need to achieve easy weight loss and maintenance, improved health and well-being. For more information log onto www.FFactorDiet.com.
Tags: calories, cheese, croutons, fat, fiber, protein, salad bar, salad dressing, salads, Tanya Zuckerbrot, tomatoes, vegetables
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Really – you’re honestly comparing the fat in avocados with the fat in heavily processed bacon bits?
I thought you had nutritional credentials – they are not showing in this rude oversimplification.
Whatever your point, you completely lost me on this one.
I am flabbergasted at how we are led down unhealthy eating paths by the constant attack on ‘whole’ foods like an honest vegetable (or whatever an avocado is) chock-full of nutrients as yet unexplained. And then directed towards processed, overpriced foods that will certainly be debunked in the next round of ‘diet wisdom’. Meanwhile, the lowly but steadfast avocado, banana and broccoli remain.
Here here Warren. How about we talk about why we shouldn’t eat processed CRAP like bacon bits and really educate people about what their bodies need to be healthy instead. I don’t think that whether one adds too much broccoli or avocados to their salads ever tipped the scale between a health weight and obesity. C’mon lady!
Though avocados are high in fat, it is not the same kind of fat as bacon bits and cheese. They are healthy when eaten in moderation and without the stuff that makes it guacamole. And to Barbara, the post encourages more veggies, not discourages.