#15 Applebee's Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad
Shrimp, spinach, salad: what could be healthier? Almost anything, as it turns out. Applebee's Grilled Shrimp and Spinach Salad has 1,050 calories, 11 g of saturated fat and 2,530 mg of sodium. You should certainly avoid this calorie-heavy salad. In fact, you should steer clear of salad in general when you're going to Applebee's. Half of the salads on the menu have more than 1,000 calories. If you want something really diet friendly, try something from their Weight Watchers menu. But you should still Google their calories, you may be surprised at how much they have.
#14 Wendy's BLT Cobb Salad
This salad was born to be an offender. It has 760 calories, 51g of fat and around 2,000mg of sodium. And that's actually not terribly bad considering it's ingredients. This is the salad that fat built. First of all, it's covered in Ranch dressing which is fattening by nature. Next, Wendy's piles on the croutons which are nothing but empty carbs. Now pack on the cheese, meat and egg and you get just about as many calories as your double cheeseburger.
#13 Chicken Caesar Salad from Romano's Macaroni Grill
Ordering the chicken ceaser from Romano's Macaroni Grill to give your diet a break? You'd be better off choosing something else. Each salad has 650 calories, 9g of saturated fat and a staggering 1,450 mg of sodium. That's just 20 calories less than a Whopper from burger king. And it has 3/4 of the sodium you need in a day. That's a lot of diet impact for a salad. You're better off eating their grilled chicken or fish. You'll stay fuller longer and have more room for calories later.
#12 Cosi's Cobb Salad
Cobb salads are generally bad news. But Cosi's cobb is one of the worst offenders. Each salad has 708 calories, 55g of fat and 1328 mg of sodium. The main culprits are the bacon and Gorgonzola cheese. But they're not the only offenders. The dressing by itself has a staggering 28 grams of sugar. That's three doughnuts worth. But the most disturbing thing about this salad is where you'll find it on Cosi's menu. They've placed it on the "Our Lighter Side menu." This fat-laden monster hardly qualifies.
#11 Einstein Bros' Bistro Salad with Chicken
This chicken salad somehow has more calories than a chicken sandwich. The Bistro Salad with Chicken sounds healthy enough. But look inside and you'll find 940 calories, 71g of fat and 810mg of sodium. No one's really sure how Einstein Bro.'s does it. The salad is mostly chicken, lettuce and dressing. Make a salad with those ingredients at home and you'd struggle to amass half of those calories. You could ask the cashier if she knows the company secret. Or, you could just eat a bagel and save yourself several hundred calories.
#10 Quizno's Chicken Caesar Flatbread Salad
This Quizno's salad starts out wrong. The flatbread it comes on packs a significant amount of calories. But that's still no excuse for 920 calories, 66.5 g of fat and 2,090 mg of sodium. That's around half of the calories you need in a day. The sodium levels are more than any person should have in one sitting. Quizno's abysmal salad shouldn't come as a big surprise. After all, Quizno's is also home to the most fattening sandwich on record. Better to avoid this building altogether if you're on a diet.
#9 El Pollo Loco's Chicken Tostada Salad
This one is just misleading. Because it comes with "Light Creamy Cilantro Dressing", it sounds healthy. But this salad has 910 calories, 47g of fat and 1700 mg of sodium. While the dressing may be light, the rest of the salad is not. The bowl is made out of a fried tortilla. Topping that is a bed of carb-heavy rice. We haven't even gotten to the sour cream, shredded cheese and 12 strips of bacon. You'd eat less calories if you had a BLT.
#8 Taco Bell's Chipotle Steak Fully Loaded Salad
This baby has 900 calories, 57g of fat and 1700 mg of sodium. But we can't say that we're surprised. After all it's bowl is a deep fried tortilla. It's probably a little misguided to expect anything healthy out of Taco Bell. Fast food is about flavor, not calorie monitoring. But having said that, this salad is still pretty bad. You're better off getting a taco. The hard shell Taco Bell taco has long been the healthiest item on the menu.
#7 Jack in the Box's Crispy Chicken Club Salad
It would be reasonable to assume that a salad is the healthiest Jack in the Box option. But Jack in the Box's Crispy Chicken Club Salad has 873 calories, 59g of fat and nearly 2200 mg of sodium. That calorie count is with all of the good stuff like croutons and ranch dressing. Take those off and you can sort of save this salad. Opt for light ranch and you'll save 150 calories and half the fat. But even stripped bare, this salad is pretty calorific (and tasteless). You're better off getting a Chicken Teriyaki Bowl. But that will still cost you 40 calories more than a Big Mac.
#6 On The Border's Grande Taco Salad
On the Border's Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef and Chipotle Honey Mustard is in a league of it's own. Eat it and you'll consume 1700 calories, 124 grams of fat and 2570 mg of sodium. That's more calories and fat than 3 big macs combined! If you're going to consume that much, there are much more exciting ways to do it. You could, for example, eat 38 strips of bacon to get that much fat. Or you could eat 11 Frisco Beef Tacos from Taco Bell. And you'll come just under the calories of On The Border's worst salad. And if you can get that many tacos down in one sitting, they'll keep you fuller longer than any salad will.
#5 Chevy's Fresh Mex Tostada Salad with Chicken
At Chevy's Fresh Mex, you're better off just grabbing a taco. Their Tostada Salad with chicken has more fat than any salad has a right to. Each one has 94 g of fat, 1,547 calories and 2,213 mg of sodium. Eat it and you'll consume most of your daily caloric intake in one meal. And you'll get much more fat than is necessary. Each salad has as much fat as 20 Twinkies. No one needs this salad in their diet. It ranks near the top of the list for the worst salads in America.
#4 The Thai Crunch Salad from California Pizza Kitchen
We all know that pizza is bad for your diet. But one salad at California Pizza Kitchen is no better. The Thai Crunch Salad with Fresh Avocado has 1400 calories, 10g of saturated fat and 1712 mg of sodium. The trouble with this salad is that it sounds healthy. It has carrots, avocado, edamame and even cabbage. How can that be bad for you? Well, part of the problem is the size. This salad comes on a virtual platter. The second culprit is the dressing. There's a lot of it and it's chock full of calories. The final straw? The handfuls of fried wonton strips. They're just little crunchy bits of deep fried dough.
#3 P.F. Chang's Chicken Chopped Salad
Salad is far from the healthiest thing on the menu at P.F. Chang's. Their Chicken Chopped Salad with Ginger Dressing packs a notable whallop. Each salad has 730 calories, 48 g of fat and 1,280 mg of sodium.That's just about the equivalent of eating three Snickers bars. If you're eating this salad as an appetizer, you're diet's really in trouble. Want something from P.F. Chang's that's kinder on your diet? Try their Spinach Stir-Fried with Garlic. A large order has just 136 calories, 6g of fat and 895 mg of sodium.
#2 Chipotle's Chicken Salad
You're at Chipotle, but a burrito will do too much damage to your diet. A salad is probably your best option, right? Wrong. A Chipotle Mexican Grill salad can have as much as 720 calories, 41g of fat and 2,015 mg of sodium. That's if you get it with black beans, red salsa, cheese and the chipotle honey vinaigrette. And that's how you'll order it because that's how it's good. The major offender in this salad is the vinaigrette. Alone, it has 260 calories and 25 grams of fat. Unfortunately, that dressing is the best part of the salad.
#1 T.G.I. Friday's Santa Fe Chopped Salad
T.G.I.Friday's has the honor of being home to the worst salad in the world. Their Santa Fe Chopped Salad has 1800 calories. That's more than any other salad that you can buy on earth. It would be impressive if it weren't so sad. If your diet can accommodate this many calories, you may as well have a Big Mac. That fast food burger actually has less calories. In fact you can chow down on two and a half Big Mac's before you can do the calorie damage of this salad. If there's a better argument for checking calories before you indulge, we haven't heard of it.
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