Escape the Salad Bar Fat Trap

Sue Grant wanted to drop a few pounds, so she gave up soup and turkey sandwiches for lunch. Now she eats a salad every day—a big pile of lettuce, a little cheese, turkey, egg, croutons, a mound of crunchy veggies, and a few crackers on the side. Her favorite topping is Russian dressing, although she often opts for Italian Caesar. The problem is, Sue is gaining, not dropping, pounds. What’s up?

Salads are the staple of dieting women, and rightfully so—they can be both healthy and filling. But by adding regular salad dressing and a lot of cheese, eggs, and croutons to her plate of lettuce, Sue has herself stuck in the salad bar fat trap.

Say that Sue typically makes a turkey sandwich with two slices of cracked-wheat bread, two slices of turkey, and a little lettuce and tomato. Add about two teaspoons of regular mayo to her sandwich, throw in a cup of vegetable soup on the side, and you have a lunch with about 375 calories and 14 grams of fat. Not bad. Now if you get out a big salad bowl and pile up some lettuce along with all of Sue’s favorite fixings and two tablespoons of Caesar dressing, you have a lunch with about 596 calories and 36 grams of fat. So much for her hopes of dropping a few pounds.

Salad can be healthy way to go, especially when you add a lot of veggies as Sue does. It’s just not going to help her lose weight, though, unless she cuts back on some of those high-fat salad bar fixings.

The key to making a leaner lunch is to pay attention to portion size. When you’re trying to fight fat, soups, salads, and sandwiches are all satisfactory choices; you just have to avoid serving up anything with fattening frills on a huge plate.