Even the jolly green giant would run from this mess....

If you were attempting to dine at a pizzeria while keeping nutrition and Calories in check, you probably wouldn’t eat an entire Large Meat Craver’s Pizza, would you?

However, healthier sounding options such as a Miso Salad or a Waldorf Salad would probably make their way onto your table.

Unfortunately, you’ve just sent your attempt at healthier eating into a doomsday spiral. Both of the aforementioned Salads, and most salads on restaurant menus, contain over 1000 Calories.

About 1500 for the two above, the same amount as the entire Meat Craver’s pizza.

Here are some more menu shockers from popular restaurant chains:


Red Robin

Fajita Fiesta Pollo Salad- 1000 Calories- As many Calories as a bacon cheeseburger
Cobb Salad- 879 Calories
Chicken Tender Salad- 1322 Calories
Mighty Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken-1059 Calories





Wendys

Wendys Mandarin Salad with Grilled Chicken Filet- 500 Calories- 5 More g of fat than a medium order of fries
Chicken BLT with Homestyle Filet- 790 Calories-The Caloric Equivalent of nearly 2.25 double stack cheeseburgers
Southwest Taco Salad-640 Calories
Grilled Chicken Caesar- 490 Calories





Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s salads contain more calories than anything on the menu, excluding Volcano nachos, which have a mere 90 Calories more.

Chicken Ranch Taco Salad-910 Calories
Fiesta Taco Salad-900 Calories
Chipotle Steak Taco Salad-770 Calories

Olive Garden

Side Salad- 350 Calories -Offered free with every meal, the side salad contains nearly as many Calories as a meal should (around 400-450 Calories).
Grilled Chicken Caesar- 850 Calories- The same amount of Calories as an order of lasagna, or two orders of linguine with marinara sauce.





Applebees

Buffalo Chicken Salad-1350 Calories
Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad-1040 Calories
Santa Fe Chicken Salad -1360 Calories- the Caloric equivalent of nearly 3.5 orders of steak topped with grilled shrimp.

So what should you order then? The menu is again a mystery but here’s a few good rules of thumb for ordering out:



If it’s crunchy, there are probably a lot more Calories. That crunch comes from either A) Deep frying B) Breading or D) Excessive fat. All lead to extra Calories- and not just a few: a lot of them. Chips, crispy chicken, breaded chicken, taco salad bowls, tortilla strips, nuts, croutons, wonton strips, and soy nuts are all prefect examples of Calorie loaded crunchy ingredients. The only large “crunch” you should be hearing is that of vegetables.



Ask for the sauce on the side and apply it sparingly yourself, or forgo it all together. Even if it sounds healthy, like raspberry vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, or honey mustard, all can add anywhere from 200-400 Calories to your order. For example, the Fajita Fiesta Pollo Salad from Red Robin contains 1000 Calories when ordered with dressing. By skipping the dressing, nearly 300 Calories would be shaved off your order.



Skip the extra bread. And this doesn’t just mean the bread basket at the beginning of a meal- the small rolls served at restaurants usually contain 120 Calories- and that’s if you eat them without butter. Chips at a Mexican restaurant contain hundreds upon hundreds of extra Calories, with free refills causing excessive consumption. Bread offered on the sides of salads and breadsticks with pasta dishes is also a no-no: serving sizes of pasta are usually 4-5 times what an actual serving of pasta should be. Fancy sounding breads like focaccia, ciabatta, and wraps also contain hundreds more Calories than plain sandwich-style bread.



Think of cheese as its own separate food group: If you can help it, don’t consume meat AND cheese at the same meal. Cheese contains the same amount of Calories per ounce as meat, so if you consume them together (such as in a pepperoni pizza, or in a Panini) you’ll be consuming a lot more Calories than if you just went with one or the other. When ordering pizza, make it an all-cheese affair, or cheese and vegetables. As for sandwiches, choose between meat or cheese, and request that one be left off in its preparation.

All of this being said, there’s a reason people think “healthy” when they think “salad”. And that’s because salad is healthy. In its natural form. And the meat covered, cheese laden, sauce drenched, tortilla crisp-covered concoctions served up at restaurants aren’t it.

I eat salad every day, but I never use it as a meal. I maintain a very high activity level every day, engaging in distance running and other vigorous activities, so a low-calorie vegetable salad would not be enough to sustain my activity or maintain my weight.

I eat a large salad every night as a “snack”, and do so because I enjoy both the taste and the health benefits that salad provide.

If you are attempting to lose weight without feeling famished, all vegetable (no meat or cheese) salads with low fat, low Calorie salad dressing are a great way to fulfill your hunger for a negligible amount of Calories, because you can eat vegetables (excluding starchy vegetables like potatoes and corn) in very high amounts. Therefore, these vegetable based "snacks" will keep you full between your actual meals.



This is an example of a salad consumed by myself. It contains spinach, beets, cucumber, red and green bell peppers, bean sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower. I used Bernstein’s Light Cheese Fantastico dressing, which contains 25 Calories per 2 Tbsp, and I probably applied about 3 Tbsp.

With this combination of vegetables, I will be receiving high levels of Vitamins A (Spinach, Peppers, Carrots), K (Spinach, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumbers, Carrots), Folate (Beets, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Peppers), Iron (Beets), Vitamin C (Broccoli, Peppers, Cauliflower, Carrots), and Vitamin B6 (Peppers).
Below are a profile are a role that these nutrients play in the body.
Vitamin A- Healthy vision, bones, and immune system
Vitamin K- Blood clotting and bone health
Vitamin C- Acts as an antioxidant, synthesizes collagen, enhances immune function, synthesizes hormones, enhances iron absorption
Vitamin B6- Assists in carbohydrate and amino acid (molecules that combine to form protein) metabolism and the synthesizing of blood cells
Folate- Amino acid metabolism, DNA synthesis
Iron- Is a component of hemoglobin in blood cells, assists Enzymes.

Remember to eat your greens, but choose to do so at home instead of out at a restaurant- that way, you’ll be receiving all the nutritious benefits, without the excessive Calories and Fat.