These Salads Are Worse For You Than A Fast Food Cheeseburger

Let’s say you and your group of friends find yourselves at your favorite chain restaurant for a meal. You sit down and start perusing the menu and you notice there’s a huge selection of salads. This is great news. You wanted to have a fun night out dining with your besties, but didn’t want to pack on a ton of saturated fat and sodium, so the salad options are a surefire way to keep things both tasty and healthy, right? Sadly, you’ll be shocked to know just how wrong that assumption is.

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“Wait a minute… How is that even possible? Salads are chock-full of green leafy things and a variety of vegetables! There’s no way a salad could actually pack on more calories than a fast food burger!” Unfortunately, there are a ton of sneaky ways restaurants bulk up their salads with all sorts of ingredients that tack on everything you’re trying to avoid if your goal is to eat a healthy, balanced diet. Let’s take a look at five chain restaurant salads that are actually worse for you than a fast food burger, and make sure to keep this in mind the next time you see that “healthy” salad selection on a menu.

The Cheesecake Factory ― Sheila’s Chicken and Avocado Salad

Whenever you ask anyone about their experience at the Cheesecake Factory, you’re almost always guaranteed to hear something about the length of the menu, and for good reason. The menu is absolutely enormous, and it’s tough to imagine one kitchen cranking out all those dishes. Of the chain’s many salad options, this one is startlingly unhealthy. This thing packs 124 grams of fat, 2,150 milligrams of sodium, and 57 grams of sugar! Most of this comes from the tortilla strips and the sweetened honey-based dressing.

Ruby Tuesday ― Honey-Glazed Salmon Bowl

The words “honey-glazed” here are an immediate red flag that this salad packs a ton of sugar into every bite. Sure, salmon is a heart-healthy cut of fish, but when it’s coated in a syrupy glaze made with corn syrup, honey, and molasses, it veers pretty far off the healthy course. With 17 grams of sugar per serving, make sure your sweet tooth is ready to work overtime before ordering this.

IHOP ― Chopped Chicken Salad with Crispy Chicken

Many people who find themselves at IHOP are there for one thing and one thing only: a heaping stack of pancakes. However, pancakes are far from the only thing IHOP’s menu offers. But, if you’re trying to go green, this salad isn’t the best way to do it. The crispy chicken is deep fried (duh), so that right there tacks on 57 grams of fat, and there’s a total of 1,490 milligrams of sodium, as well.

Applebee’s ― Oriental Chicken Salad

Here we have crispy chicken again as a calorie culprit. But, the salad is also topped with deep-fried chow mein noodles, which add to the overall unhealthiness. The order also comes with a breadstick brushed with garlic butter, so leaving that off to the side makes for a slightly healthier meal. However, the chicken and fried noodles (along with everything else) deliver a total of 105 grams of fat.

Chili’s ― Quesadilla Explosion Salad

Okay, based on the name, you can probably assume this thing isn’t the pinnacle of health, but the words “quesadilla explosion” are too hilarious not to highlight. The salad does, in fact, come with a cheese quesadilla cut into four pieces, along with a handful of fried tortilla strips. If you order the salad with crispers, as many diners do, get ready to take on 1,420 calories, 100 grams of fat (29 of which are saturated), and a little under 3,000 milligrams of sodium.