Pimp Your Salad

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Make sure everything you put in your salad is diet-friendly.

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If you are one of those dieters who like to opt for a salad every time you eat out, you should definitely be aware that not all salads are equally healthy. But with a little education, you can make smart substitutions to ensure everything stays low calorie, low fat, and highly nutritious.

Instead of Iceberg Lettuce, Have Spinach: Iceberg lettuce isn’t bad for you, but it isn’t exactly doing anything great for you either. Spinach has a ton of vitamins and antioxidants that can protect your cardiovascular system, boost your energy, and slow signs of aging.

Instead of Croutons, Have Nuts: Croutons are chunks of fried bread, and all of that oil will pack a bunch of unnecessary saturated fat and extra calories into your meal. Nuts on the other hand will give you a nice boost of protein, plus a few “healthy” fats that can actually help speed your weight loss.

Instead of a Creamy Dressing, have Vinaigrette: Ranch and bleu cheese dressing have gobs of saturated fat. Not only is vinaigrette dressing much lighter, but vinegar has been shown to help regulate insulin levels, which makes it easier to burn off body fat.

Instead of Fried Chicken, Have Grilled Chicken: Protein in your salad is definitely a good idea, but make sure it is of the grilled variety and not soaked in grease. If the salad’s description includes the word “crispy,” you can bet more than one ingredient has been deep-fried.

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Unfortunately, almost all fast food salads are not very diet-friendly, with most packing over twenty grams of fat. Your best bet for eating a salad at a chain restaurant would probably be Subway, where the veggie delight salad has just one gram of fat and the Subway club salad has just 3.5 grams of fat, assuming you get the fat free Italian dressing for both.

How to Dress Up a Salad

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Eat LESS salad dressing. Salad is nearly everyone’s choice for a healthy go-to food, and for good reason. A salad of mixed greens with fresh veggies packs a load of nutrients, vitamins and fiber without adding too many calories.

The problem usually enters when we add extra fat to the salad in the form of cheese, high-calorie meat (salami, ham, dark meat chicken, etc.), olives, bacon bits, croutons, and especially salad dressing.

Because eating salad with no dressing is unrealistic for most people, including me, I would never suggest that as a goal. Instead, you should aim to just cut the amount of dressing you eat – even if it’s fat free because even fat-free dressing can be loaded with calories.


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When you’re eating salad at a restaurant, you should always ask for the dressing on the side so that you can control how much you end up using. Instead of pouring it on top of your salad, simply dip (not scoop) your fork in the dressing before stabbing each bite of lettuce. That way you will still get to enjoy the taste with each bite, but you’ll end up using much less dressing and potentially saving hundreds of calories.


You can use the same tactic when you’re enjoying salad at home, but there’s an even easier way to go. Try new Wishbone® Salad Spritzers or any other brand of spray-on salad dressing. With only 1 calorie per spray, it’s the best way to add flavor to your entire salad.


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I can’t even tell you the number of times that I’ve seen someone who is trying to lose weight load up on a huge salad for lunch and dinner – thinking that they’re really doing something positive.

While their intentions are always good, once they dump all of the salad dressing on it, they get to the point where they’d have been better off just eating a greasy burger.

I think the new Salad Spritzers are a great idea, and I’d like to see restaurants start offering spray-on dressing as a healthy-eating option.

Side note: The marketer in me HAS to mention that Wishbone has done a darn good job advertising this dressing. They’re making it seem like they were the first ones to come up with the idea and the media is going along with it…touting the product as innovative and revolutionary. Actually, it’s all about the marketing because I remember seeing Richard Simmons talk about his spray-on dressing on some infomercials at least 10 or 15 years ago.



About Cafe Physique:
The mission of Café Physique is to help clients reach and exceed their personal fitness and nutrition goals. If you’re in need of an a nutritionist in Atlanta or an Atlanta personal trainer – Café Physique is the perfect solution. We offer Atlanta yoga instruction, Atlanta prenatal workouts, and Atlanta personal training. We also have private sessions of pilates that Atlanta residents are raving about. We invite you to let a member of our Atlanta registered dietitian staff or personal training team develop and implement a realistic and healthy lifestyle plan to meet your personal goals.