Salad, a Healthy Option? 🥗
I’ve worked in a fast food restaurant and often seen people on a diet trying to make healthier choices, and I emphasize, trying. When there are plenty of greasy and salty burgers, a salad may seem a good and healthy choice. Comparing a salad and a burger with fries, the salad often is a healthier choice, but healthy? Not sure about that.
Let’s take an example where we compare a salad with its accompaniments and a big mac sized burger with regular fries from a popular fast food chain in Finland:
| Meal | Burger with fries | Fried chicken salad with seed mix and light dressing |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 943 | 624 |
| Fats | 54.2 | 40.5 |
| Salt | 3.6 | 2.9 |
| Sugar | 9.2 | 16.1 |
As you can see, we could say that the salad is partially a healthier option when compared with the burger and fries, but is it really healthy? Absolutely not. There’s enough salt for the whole day, 8 cubes worth of sugar and more than half of your daily need of fats. For some people, it may seem absurd that a person attempting to lose weight would eat a fried chicken salad, or even at a fast food restaurant in the first place, but this is reality. People think they’re making smart choices by eating like this, when in reality they’re just harming their own process.
Occasional meal from a fast food restaurant is perfectly fine, but never take the healthiness of the meal for granted, even if it was a salad!
Tips for restaurant when having a specific goal (e.g. weight loss) in mind:
• With salads, ask the dressing on the side instead of on top of the whole salad
• With proteins, ask if it’s possible to have it grilled or fried with little oil, oftentimes the cooking process includes a lot of oil and butter
• Ask a substitute for fries (if you’re meal includes them), most likely you’ll be able to have grilled vegetables or a salad instead
• Be aware of the empty calories from drinks!
• Eat slowly, and stop when you’re full! At restaurants, the dishes are often quite large, and we all end up eating way too much
Eating healthily at restaurants is indeed possible. Just ask nicely from the waitress if some modifications could be done, most likely they will do their very best to not lose a customer. And most important, enjoy every meal!
-Jasmin ❤
That's a good fact that salad doesn't automatically mean healthy. Usually, if I choose a salad in a fast food chain, I choose it because of the nutrients. Even though there is a lot of calories (because of mayo etc.), there are also a lot more vital nutrients, more than in a hamburger meal.
Good point! However, I've noticed that salads from fast food restaurants don't really include veggies with a lot of nutrients... Usually they almost completely consist of iceberg salad and cucumber, which aren't that nutrient dense. But I'm not denying the fact that salad is healthy, a good salad can be super satisfying and nutrient dense, and taste amazing! 😊
That's true! I think salads are often underestimated and called rabbit food with a negative ascent.
I love salad
Salad: the best option for the summer!! I love it.