Monday is a good day to start cultivating healthy-eating habits at the salad bar!

If you’re not careful, some offerings at your favorite salad bar will blow your diet plans right out of the water. In fact, an average plate could top out at more than 1,000 calories, depending on the choices and portions, nutritionists warn.

In any healthy eating plan, the word “salad” doesn’t automatically equate to a slimmer waistline. In fact, salad bars are notorious for reeling unsuspecting dieters to their doom with items that are about as bad-for-you as a greasy cheeseburger.

Then again, salad bars contain absolute “musts,” those items that are low in calories, fat and on the glycemic index, and brimming over with disease-fighting antioxidants. You just need to learn how to separate the wheat from the shaft, so to speak.

Learning the salad secrets

By learning the secrets of salads, you turn trips to the salad bar into a satisfying way to quench your body's thirst for folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene, and beta-carotene. In fact, each serving of salad correlates with a 165 percent higher likelihood of meeting recommended dietary allowances for vitamin C in women and 119 percent greater likelihood in men, nutritionists say.

But tread carefully as you walk slowly along the bar.

Here are some no-no’s:

•  Crumbled bacon—loaded with unhealthy saturated fat;

•  Caesar dressing—expect at least 90 calories a tablespoon, especially if it contains Parmesan cheese

•  Tuna or pasta salads—usually made out of high-fat mayonnaise.

•  Cheese—yes, it’ll provide you with calcium, but a one-inch cube will add 69 calories and a truckload of saturated fat to your waistline.

Because of their calorie and fat content, here are some use-with-cautions:

•  Almonds and other nuts;

•  Artichoke hearts in oil;

•  Capers;

•  Croutons;

•  Hummus;

•  Kalamanta and other olives;

•  Sardines;

•  Sesame and sunflower seeds.

Here are the musts:

• Tomatoes, red bell peppers—the most famous of the “red” foods, loaded with nutrients, such as lycopene.

• Cucumbers—the coolest veggie around.

• Mangoes and nearly any fruit.

• Greens—the darker, the better, such as arugula, watercress, romaine, spinach, lettuce, and broccoli.

The American Dietetic Association, a group of registered dietitians, offer these tips for the next time you belly up to the bar:

• Pace yourself. Check out the choices from end to end before you begin making your salad.
 
• Use a salad plate, not a dinner plate, to help you reduce portions.

• Make greens your base.

• Choose low-fat or fat-free dressing in a cup on the side. Skipping high-fat dressings and cheese in favor of low-fat dressing could save 80 to 150 calories, says Karen Collins, a nationally known nutritionist whose work appears on Nubella, MSNBC.com, and other major Web sites.

Nubella Tip: Read “Not All Fat-Free Dressings Created the Same”


• Dip each forkful of salad lightly into the dressing.

• Think about subbing a splash of vinegar or lemon juice for the dressing.

However, Collins warns against the temptation to reward yourself for eating just a salad.
 
"We play mind games with ourselves," she says. "People will use having a salad to justify getting a large order of fries. Or, after being so good at the salad meal, they feel justified in eating excessively later on in the day.

"The bottom line is that we need to focus on moderate calories and also the nutrients we get for those calories. Getting the right calorie level is meaningless if we don't get the nutrients we need along with them."

•  Pump Up That Salad with Protein

•  Surprising Salads from the Mediterranean

•  The Salad Strategy to Control Weight

•  Grain-Based Salads Are Here

•  Balanced Eating Blog—Nubella's registered dietitian, Theresa Stahl, keeps you up-to-date with nutrition news and recipes.

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