We generally think of salads as being the healthy option when we're trying to lose weight, and they usually are. But not all salads are created equal. It’s important to pay attention to what’s actually in your salad, especially when eating out at a restaurant or café, as often what masquerades as a healthy choice can actually contain salty, sugary, fatty, and nutritionally poor ingredients. Don’t let it fool you! Here are a few things to look out for to make sure your salad isn’t sneaking in extra calories…

Cheese

Cheese might add extra flavour to your salad, but it also adds extra saturated fat, so use it in moderation. It also pays to be careful choosing which type of cheese to use. Avoid hard, dry cheeses that are low in moisture, as these are the most concentrated sources of fat. Instead, swap your parmesan for feta, which is still quite high in fat but has a stronger taste, so you tend to eat less. Another idea is to leave cheese out altogether. Get your flavour hit from colourful vegetables instead, like beetroot, tomato, capsicum, and carrot, or even fruits like apple, mango, grapes and mandarin. These will add variety to your salad without the extra fat.

Bacon

It’s important to be wary of bacon in restaurant or ready-made salads, as often it is deep fried, and you can’t control what part of the bacon you are getting. When you’re cooking bacon yourself, only use the eye- it’s still quite high in salt, but it’s much lower in fat. Alternatively, try using a different source of protein that is lower in salt. Grilled chicken, tofu, eggs, salmon, tuna, chickpeas, lentils, and beans are all good options that will keep you feeling full for longer.

Croutons

They might seem innocent, but croutons are essentially just bread fried in fat- much better to leave these out of your salad altogether! But there are plenty of other ingredients you can replace them with for extra texture and taste. Try oven-roasted nuts, like pine-nuts, walnuts or almonds. Sprinkling a handful of these over your salad is a much better way to get that crunch.   

Pasta

Pasta salad has a way of making us forget that it is in fact a cold bowl of pasta. Normal pasta is highly refined, with high calorie content, high GI, and low nutritional value. So while it’s okay in moderation, try replacing it with wholemeal pasta in your salad. Wholemeal pasta is higher in fibre and has more vitamins and iron, so this is a much better use of your calories.

A word on dressings…

It seems like a good move to opt for fat-free dressings- but this isn’t always the case. In fact, a lot of fat-free dressings are doing you more harm than good, as they are much higher in sugar and sodium, and they reduce your body’s ability to absorb the antioxidants from all the good stuff in the salad. On the other hand, the fats in oils like vegetable, olive and seed, help you to absorb antioxidants, so using these in moderation is often a better choice. A good tip to try is dressing your salad with two tables of olive oil mixed with lemon juice or balsamic vinegar- the acidity gives you a little extra flavour, and lowers the GI of the salad.