4 Salads to Avoid

Salads should be a light and healthy alternative to any meal, but sometimes ordering a lovely plate of greens ends up resulting in a grassy pool of fatty dressing, chunky cheeses and greasy, carb-filled croutons. These four sneaky salads are the most common offenders, so watch out for them.

1. Chicken Caesar. This little chicken can pack a whopping 750 calories, 50 grams of fat and more sodium than a bag of chips! When you’re ordering this should-be healthy dish, ask for the dressing and cheese on the side and forgo the croutons. You’ll cut your calories and fat by almost half and leave feeling satisfied and maybe even a little lighter.

2. Shrimp Salad. There’s nothing shrimpy about 1,000 calories, 69 grams of fat and a staggering 2,600 mg of sodium. To fight the fat in this sassy salad, ask for a side of avocado and skip the dressing. By replacing heavy, unhealthy dressings that can weigh you down with creamy
   avocado, you won’t miss the heaping helping of unwanted calories.

3. Asian Chicken Salad. In a salad, the words ‘Asian’ and ‘chicken’ can be misleading especially when the chicken is fried, the Asian noodles are crunchy bundles of greasy carbs and the Mandarin oranges slices are sugary enough to sharply spike your glucose levels. When ordering this salad, make sure you get it with grilled chicken and swap out the noodles for edamame or snap peas for a greeny crunch.

4. Cobb Salad. The Cobb is probably the most common violator of healthy lunchtimes with its supersized portions of bacon, ham, blue cheese and hard-boiled eggs. To lighten things up, avoid the other meats and opt for lean turkey breast and dressing on the side.