Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Is Your Weight Stuck? It May Be Your Salad.

Salads are the quintessential weight loss food.  However, grouping all salads together and assuming they are healthy is like presuming all siblings are alike because they’re in the same family (and that’s complete nonsense). In February’s Allure I was interviewed for a fun story called “Eating Amnesia”. It’s all about the calories that sneak into our mouths that we forget about or never even realize. One section of the article discusses salads, “a bed of lettuce isn’t a magic wand that turns anything low calorie. 

There are the obscene salads at chain restaurants across the country with “crispy” aka fried chicken and noodles that I have to think everyone knows aren’t a nutritious choice. Chili’s Quesadilla Explosion salad with 1300 calories over 2000mg of sodium and Applebee’s Chicken Bruschetta Salad also almost a day’s worth of calories and a day and half of sodium are not uncommon on chain restaurant menus. Salads with Steak, Mexican and Asian salads tend to be high calorie. Aside from the flagrantly unhealthy salads, there are the salads that I find more deceptively damaging. These are salads that seem OK but are just a little too interesting. The popular Cosi Signature Salad has chicken and cranberries and vinaigrette. It seems like a decent option but has 623 calories. Le Pain Quotidien, a place I love, has a shrimp salad that’s over 500 calories.  These are the salad traps more of my clients fall into.

A salad doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be too much. Dried fruit is going to run you at least 100 calories and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.  Cheese in your salad will be 150-200 calories and can be, in case of feta, up to 800 mg of sodium. In terms of dressing- most condiment cups hold 2 to 2.5 ounces. For various establishments this is 200-350 calories from dressing alone. Restaurants and salad bars sometimes use more than a condiment cup’s worth. And that piece of bread that’s so small and free with your salad is 100ish calories but I know, you never have the bread (wink, wink). So you can easily be at 500+ calories before the lettuce, veggies or protein.

Sometimes, what I call an “entrée” lunch is a cleaner choice:
Grilled Chicken, 2 cups of broccoli and a little olive oil = 345 calories
Poached Salmon, 2 cups of asparagus and some oil for cooking is 400 calories.
These calculations use a Blackberry-sized (no iPhone for me) piece of protein or 5oz. Many restaurants will give you a gross amount of protein- ½ to ¾ pound is “normal” ick. And a sandwich on 1-2 pieces of sprouted bread with lean protein and veggies can be a nice lunch option too.

If you’re a salad enthusiast or saladophile my suggestions are:

  • Choose a good green as your base. I love dinosaur or lacinato kale, butter lettuce (Gotham Greens are fantastic in NYC) or escarole.
  • Add a minimum of three other veggies.
  • Keep “treat” ingredients: nuts, seeds, avocados, dried fruit, avocado, chickpeas to 1 per salad. You can have walnuts and dried cherries and goat cheese but not on the same day.
  • Protein should be Blackberry not laptop sized.
  • Don’t eat ingredients in your salad you don’t generally eat (chips, croutons-greasy white bread, bacon).
  • For dressing, use olive oil and lemon or olive oil and vinegar with 1 tbs of oil.
  • Your whole salad shouldn’t be the size of your head or in a bowl you would use for a family of 4.

One of our Foodtrainers’ favorite salads is Gotham Greens butter lettuce, jarred tuna, red onion, jicama and cabbage, 1/3 avocado sliced, olive oil, lemon juice and of course hot sauce, salt and pepper.

If you’re looking to loose weight keep salads at around 400 calories give or take. If you watch size and “treats” they can be a healthy choice, as long as you don’t have eating amnesia.
What’s your favorite salad green? Overall salad? Favorite “treat” ingredient? How similar are you to your siblings?

35 comments:

  1. OH I LOVE salads!! In fact, I've been making a lot of salads for dinner lately; spinach, broccoli, a bit of parmesan cheese, garlic oil (sprayed on), balsamic vinegar, and grilled chicken. I also add egg whites sometimes, and sliced almonds. I just love the "Blank canvass" that a salad provides, but like you said in this post, that "blank canvass" can easily be a calorie trap!!
    Salad are certainly a "health halo". PEople hear the word and assume they are all healthy. Definitely not true. Your tips are great.

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  2. Too much "paint" on the canvas can be a problem. At home, perhaps less of an issue almonds aren't toasted in butter, amounts controlled but treat ingredients can still add up.

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  3. I don't understand why restaurants even offer those beastly salads. I do. But I don't. I love when I see a real, fat, dude order a calorie-bomb salad. I want to scream at him, JUST GET THE BURGER!!!! But, alas, I don't. I am wise in that way;)

    The thing that saddens me about eating out (in general) is that even if you are ordering the salad without the added goodies and o+v on the side, you are still eating a plate full of pesticides at most establishments. This sort of got me off of salads. Unless I am at Le Pain, in which case I always get the smoked salmon salad with no dressing (oil and vin on side). Sure, the smoked salmon is probably too high in sodium, but it's delicious!

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  4. I agree Cameo, once we get past the salads the quality is so poor. Even a Lennys in the city I feel the salad doesn't taste like anything. I'll do whole foods bar, organic ave, le pain but really feel options limited even in NYC (just have to make my own). As far as the beastly salads, we have a beastly country. Not sure the burger is better but very similar.

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  5. My salads are boring but I enjoy them. Grape tomatoes, English cucumber and then a salad mix of lecture, carrots, spinach, radish and baby greens. The trick was to find a good dressing. When I started all this I was shocked to learn my dressing was 120 calories and I had at least 2 servings.

    I have since tried about 20 different dressings which are 60 calories or less and my favorite is Ken's Light Options Sweet Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette at 60 calories. I eat this salad every work day for lunch. There is no protein in it, but I get that elsewhere. I like it because I am a muncher and I eat this salad over about 15 minutes.

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  6. Thank you for this post! I've heard so many people say they're frustrated about not being able to lose weight and that they don't understand because they have "just a salad" every day for lunch. Go figure that salad has tons of cheese, avocado, meat, croutons, and creamy dressing. The word "just" is usually a bad sign when someone's talking about their diet.

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  7. 100% "just a (1000) calorie salad" always about the details.

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  8. I also love salads and lately my favorite is the thai chopped chicken salad from panera. it's about 400 calories, and i generally don't use all the dressing, they give way too much. they also give a little too much chicken and i end up leaving some of that in the bowl most of the time - i get my fill of chicken pretty quickly.

    i also like the salad station at fairway, but i always have to get the dressing on the side - even if i ask them for "just a little" dressing, it's still a whole ladel full - not only is it overdoing it in the calorie dept, it doesn't taste very good when it's dripping with dressing. too much dressing is a pet peeve of mine.

    we are always amazed when we go to chilis or applebees and the burger is among the lowest-calorie choices on the menu - almost always lower than the salads.

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  9. I've been craving salads lately! Love butter lettuce!
    My favorite toppings are avocado, sweet potato, lemon juice, honey, rice vinegar and any other veggies I have on hand.
    I'm not big on eating salads out of the home. Usually it's icky watery iceberg lettuce and the veggies are dried out. Plus you don't know what's in the salad dressing.

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  10. I get this all the time.. "But I had a salad." Come to find out it's piled with ranch, croutons, and cheese.
    It is easy for those calories to pile up like you mentioned. Love the options you gave. Sound delicious!

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  11. Good post. LOL at the protein serving not being laptop size.

    I'd say one of my favorite treat ingredients in a salad is cheese.

    I love southwest or Mexican flavors in a salad. I had a salad once in a restaurant that was topped with a sort of corn-bean salsa that was yummy. I haven't been able to replicate it at home.

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  12. hard to replicate real mexican anything at home. I'm with you on cheese, I could forego almost anything for cheese. Thanks for appreciating the humor.

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  13. I completely agree and do get caught up in the "I am just eating a salad" trap. Have taken your advice and only have one "treat in my salad". Normally make mine at home, but do like Chop't. However, could easily see building a 1000 calorie salad there, all their choices are so yummy. Have to have a pre-chop't pep talk and plan before going in there. Also, NEVER get the bread. Love everything at Le Pain...just wish I could hold of their gazpacho recipe.

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  14. I like my salads naked, but salads are not a favorite because lettuce is so...plain, I guess. I don't like salad dressing unless it is Penzeys Green Goddess made by moi. When I do have a salad, I like to cut up grape tomatoes and then shake them with the sturdier ingredients. The tomato juice and seeds comes out and dresses the salad a bit. Yummy.

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  15. Caron, I agree about lettuce but find really good greens (not garbage at many places) are delicious. Oh, Dr O has traps? That's sort of good to hear. Le Pain does a great job actually was just there for lunch and had salad Cameo mentioned and chamomile mint iced tea.

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  16. I eat a salad for lunch most days (that I make), but rarely get one when we eat out. I find I request too much of the "stuff" to be taken out, and am left with little to eat.

    One exception, our favorite mexican restaurant has a non-tortilla-bowl salad that comes with shrimp and avocado and salsa -- so good.

    Since reading one of your past posts about salad dressings, I have just been using a lot of pepper and fresh lime juice as a dressing and I love it!

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  17. Ps - Lisa, I find the idea of honey on a salad really intriguing, I've never heard of that. A small drizzle may be able to replace that sweet "dried fruit" effect?

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  18. Jessica, so thrilled we had you ditch the bottled dressing, that makes me so happy. Lime/pepper great and I find a drop of maple syrup is a great dressing addition especially with mustardy dressing.

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  19. I don't eat salads at restaurants, mainly because I need solid food to make me feel full! Leafy greens don't usually do it for me. Plus, I can make it at home so easily!

    But I will indulge in a CPK BBQ salad sometimes (minus the chicken and the ranch). I prefer to avoid knowing how many calories are in there!

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  20. So true. Such a prevailing belief that all salads are healthy! Are chickpeas really a treat food? I should have assumed but I guess a part of me didn't want to hear that out loud! I usually take my salads without any dressing but for the most part it's unsatisfying. I would like to start adding olive oil.

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  21. I know Sam, chickpeas aren't a "treat" like cake or cookies but compared to veggies or lean protein they are more dense. chickpeas in a salad are great but chickpeas, almonds, cranberries and goat cheese would not be a sane salad. A little oil goes a long way from a flavor standpoint.

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  22. great points folks need reminded of this

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  23. I eat salads everyday for lunch with an egg, cottage cheese (1%), avocado and my own dressing (3tbsp 1% buttermilk, juice of 1 Meyer lemon, a clove garlic and S&P) and I add lettuces, cucumber, cilantro, mushrooms and green onions and it is never over 350 calories. There are also fresh goat cheeses that have less than 40 calories per 35 grams, which I also use sometimes in place of the cottage cheese. It can be done!

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  24. Great post! The one thing that helps me is to log the ingredients into my online food journal. (I use MyFitnessPal.) It gives me a running total of the number of calories that I'm adding.

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  25. Eunice, my virtue of counting and tracking, I know your salads are sane, well done. Elizabeth your salad sounds delicious, you're a caloric inspiration. And Rebecca, agreed. People shun treat foods but their salad may be, in reality, worse.

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  26. I've gone back to very simple salads (as for a while there I made them a bit "too interesting.") So now it is: lots of greens dressed in a bit of olive oil & vinegar. "Add ins" are cucumber slices, mushrooms, roasted veggies, etc. I love wild canned salmon with lemon juice for my protein.

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  27. Andrea, any canned salmon brand you like, I never enjoy (and love salmon). We all can veer toward too interesting without checking. Surprised many who have commented didn't feel they had problematic salads.

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  28. Really great information Lauren. I've been guilty of adding 2 many healthy "treats" to my salads a home, but lately I've been trying to keep it to one like you suggest-usually is avocado or pine nuts, and sometimes cheese. A friend brought over some mixed organic greens last night from our Sunday trip to the FM, and they were amazing all on their own, with a very little bit of goat cheese, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. I also like to add chopped purple cabbage to may salads for a little extra crunch and health quotient.

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  29. Good greens are so good, I'm a cabbage-lover too. People forget about cabbage.

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  30. I'm so glad I read this yesterday before I built my salad. I kept saying: 3 veggies and 1 treat, 3 veggies and 1 treat. And it worked! My "bad" salad...the really good pizza place down the street has a pizza salad. It's a lovely thin crust topped with a load of great salad. I "think" I'm being virtuous when I eat it, but I know better.

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  31. Marie- you raise a good point. In some cases adding a green is good. So, for example, salad pizza (if good greens) may be a good choice in the pizza category but still a "bad" salad excuse. Depends on what you are going for damage control/including veggies or weight control.

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  32. I love baby spinach, arugula, or a melscun mix for my greens base. You offer some great advice here. I am guilty of combining walnuts, goat cheese, and even craisins in one salad. I'm going to heed your tip and try to limit those treat toppings to one per salad. Thanks!

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  33. Dang, I've been eating Chili’s Quesadilla Explosion salads for several years.

    You're a spoilsport.

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