Have you seen what calories & fat some restaurant *salads* have? Crazy.

The KFC Double Down conversations here got me thinking about an article I read about how bad some salads can be for you if you are eating at a restaurant. Check it out:

Quizno's Classic Cobb Flatbread Salad
910 calories
58 g fat (12.5 g saturated, 0.5 g trans)
1,890 mg sodium
61 g carbohydrates

Wendy's Chicken BLT Salad with Honey Dijon Dressing and Croutons
790 calories
53.5 g fat (14 g saturated)
1,735 sodium

Asian Salad
P.F. Chang's Chicken Chopped Salad with Ginger Dressing
940 calories
68 g fat (10 g saturated)
2,225 mg sodium

Chili's Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad
1,070 calories
77 g fat (15 g saturated)
4,380 mg sodium

IHOP's Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
1,210 calories

On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef and Chipotle Honey Mustard
1,700 calories
124 g fat (37.5 g saturated)
2,620 mg sodium

Baja Fresh Charbroiled Steak Tostada Salad
1,230 calories
63 g fat (17 g saturated, 2 g trans)
2,380 mg sodium

Romano's Macaroni Grill Seared Sea Scallops Salad
1,170 calories
94 g fat (27 g saturated)
2,680 mg sodium

Link


KFC's Double Down:
540 calories
32 grams of fat
1380 mg of sodium


Not that I think the Double Down is a good choice. Actually I think eating at restaurants in general will usually load you up on fat and calories that you don't expect.

I guess it's the dressing.

That can add tons of fat. And the oils used in the dressings just kicks it into the stratosphere.

Look at a Cobb Salad some time and it looks alot like a sandwich. Bread (crutons), cheese, meat, eggs,... Just putting these things ON lettuce, instead of lettuce on them doesn't make a hamburger into a "salad".

Add in the croutons, cheeses, and meats and the numbers start to pile up.

and wine vinegar.

But if you're going to have that much chickpea, you might as well have humus.

If you're out and need something quick - order these without meat or cheese and without croutons and regular dressing and then just grill your own meat or eat your own hummus or beans later when you get home.

I loves me some hummus. I rarely eat meat anymore: I get most of my protein from low-fat milk or low-fat cream cheese and from vegetables, like beans, legumes and the like.

Lettuce, avacado veggies, chicken and Honey Mustard dressing.

If it's got meat, cheese, croutons & dressing, it;s probably going to be a diet-buster

about their choice.

what the CDC is now recommending(1,500 mg) most people should consume in a day.

I dont eat much out anymore. But the tastes are always more intense out. They load everything with salt. To get equal taste at home, you must oversalt. That is the trap. If all sources used less salt, we would taste the same. Slowly. And all fat is not fat. They use cheap fats. Bad fats. Butter? I dont believe it. Butter flavor? sure. And the meats are always pressed. And coated. Likely have the pink ooze added.

As expensive as fast food is, anymore, a sitdown restaurant, is less than a buck more, and far better food. I get water, a better meal, and equallish price. NO FAST FOOD. Just the Umami tricks are enough to shun. It is a bad health trap. And their excuse that you arent supposed to really eat there. At least not often.

the low(er)-fat dressing (most of the low-fats they give you are still pretty dang high in fat) or carry around your own.

They have tons of veggies to choose from.

And, they also have a vinaigrette choice.

A deep fried corn chip bowl, a half pound of ground beef, re-fried beans, sour cream, Guacamole, shredded cheese and if there's any room left over; a few shreds of lettuce.

But is it healthy? Of course it is; it's a salad.

Holy moley. I don't eat at any of these places, and if I did, I wouldn't choose a salad probably. But now I definitely won't chose a salad. I've never felt these entree salads were healthy choices before this. Now I'm convinced.

Oh, and btw--4,380 mg of sodium in the chicken salad? (clutching my heart)

make sure to write down amounts. Then input it into something like the Fat Secret website. I think many people would be SHOCKED at what they are eating.

David Kessler spends the first 1/2 of this book talking about the food industry, including chain restaurants, Hardee's and Chili's alike. and how they game their menu to get you to eat more and more calories... layering flavors, sugar, fat, and salt so that you'll buy more and more product from them. It touches the same addictive pathways in the brain that cocaine does. They are looking for more profits from you. Getting fat from it is a side bonus.

http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271688289&sr=1-1

Ugh. I haven't looked at restaurant food the same way again. :scared:

Even if you want to get the "healthy" choices on the menu, it's easy to be misled. SO loves to eat out and is also obese. Before SO and I started dating last year, I was 20 lbs lighter. :silly: To his credit, he's started to pay attention and I've been able to convince him of the value of eating more at home.

TV really pushes bacon.

onto a salad that you literally could not see any green on the salad.

I have seen people do this a lot. :P

of 2,000mg.

:wow:

Yuk.

of iceberg lettuce and a 55 gallon drum of dressing.

So here's a hint: if the first words on a menu describing a salad are what kind of meat it's buried under, it's probably not low calorie.

to sky-rocket