Salad Hazards: Can a Salad Compromise Your Health?

I used to think I could bury a doughnut between a couple lettuce bites and not have to account for it. But trust me, those calories and fat grams didn't somehow vaporized in a bowl of green leafy salad greens. It doesn't work that way. Every fat gram counts. Every highly-processed gram of carbohydrate counts. There's no such thing as free carbohydrates, free fat, or free doughnut calories. That means good health doesn't just happen; it requires vigilance. Even a salad can compromise your health. Here's why.

Typical Salad Bar

Let's take a look at the typical ingredients found in a restaurant dinner salad. Better yet, assume you have a large salad bowl and you can select your salad ingredients from the buffet line or salad bar. What do you add to your salad plate? Here are your options. Decide which ingredients you'll add. But for the sake of illustration, assume that you're famished, the salad bar looks tantalizing, and you're not on a diet.

For your green salad, you find: mixed salad greens, red and green onions, celery, red and green peppers, radishes, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, pickled beets, sunflower seeds, garbanzo and kidney beans, buttered croutons, fish crackers, grated cheese, sliced egg, real bacon bits, sliced avocado, and several creamy dressings.

Calorie, Carbohydrate, and Fat Inspection

If you stuck with most of the vegetables, you are getting fiber, low fat, and few carbohydrates--provided you're eating a serving size. A serving of tomato is a not much more than a slice; the same goes for an onion. If you heaped a whole lot on top of your plate, you're probably talking over 10 grams of carbs from just the vegetables alone. If you're using a salad dressing, most dressings also have at least 6-20 carbohydrate grams, depending on added sugars. Serving size is 2 tablespoonfuls. Likely you exceeded that amount on your salad. And if you did, fat grams for a serving of dressing can exceed 20 grams and calories can climb toward 200 per single serving of dressing.

Other fat contributors are cheese, egg, bacon, and avocado. Did you know that a serving size of avocado is 1/8 an avocado? A cheese serving is an ounce--about the size of a couple of dice. And if you thought you were safe with the buttered croutons, the bread used was probably white bread void of fiber, which means the carbohydrate count was a minimum of 15 grams--but most likely higher. Is it any wonder that folks gain weight eating "salad" at salad bars?

America's Super-Size Problem

What we believe to be a serving or portion size, rarely is. Most often, we have an exaggerated idea of portion sizes. Americans have learned to super-size everything, and now, we no longer recognize a typical serving size. There's a limit to the amount of calories we can consume without weight gain. When we exceed that limit, our bodies store the excess for a leaner time. Unfortunately, there's no leaner time.

Salads can be a healthy choice, when moderation is used and serving sizes are followed. Furthermore, there's no way to hide fat-laden, sugary ingredients under the romaine or on top of it. Every dietary choice counts. If you're not careful, your "healthy" salad can be worse in terms of calorie count, fat, and carbohydrates than many other dinner options you might have selected. Good health means observing serving sizes and knowing what you're getting when you do add tasty toppings to your salad greens.