JJ Virgin

You have that friend and so do I. She flaunts her imaginary health halo, piously abstaining from that double cheeseburger (did she just give you a look of judgment for ordering what you did?) while she sticks with a sensible dinner salad at your favorite bistro.

Break the news to her kindly: that “healthy” salad can pack far more sugar than anything else on the menu.

Sneaky sugars can hide in foods you would never suspect. You know a gargantuan piece of chocolate cake comes sugar-loaded, and maybe you also realize a bowl of pasta will break down to sugar in your body, but did you know a salad can make a higher-sugar impact than both of them?

Sneaky sugars hide in places you’d never suspect—whole foods, diet foods, packaged fruit, drinks, sauces, and even sugar substitutes. But nowhere do they become more apparent than in restaurant salads. Let’s take a look at the biggest sneaky salad sugar offenders.

Balsamic vinegar.

Balsamic vinegar comes in two varieties. Authentic, traditional balsamic vinegar has been made in Italy for hundreds of years. It’s expensive, aged for at least 12 years, and prized by gourmet chefs and foodies. Eager to get it on grocery shelves, manufacturers accelerate its journey with “condiment balsamic vinegar” that’s aged as little as 2 months. Most commercial balsamic vinegar comes from white wine vinegar and has caramel coloring (for color and added sweetness), sugar, and thickeners like cornstarch and gum. It can have as many as four times the number of calories in a cup as regular cider vinegar.
Fat-free dressings like raspberry vinaigrette or honey mustard. Another health impostor in the don’t-pour-that-on-your-salad: fat-free dressings. Don’t even get me started about the maelstrom of horrific ingredients in these fake-food atrocities; 1.5 ounces of one popular fat-free dressing packs nine grams of sugar. Because you don’t have fat to satisfy you, you’ll probably use two or three times that amount, practically converting your salad into a hot fudge sundae.
Dried fruit. You wouldn’t pour candy onto your salad, but that’s exactly what you’re doing with raisins, dates, and other dried fruit. A quarter-cup of one commercial dried fruit packs 29 grams of sugar. Sorry, not buying their health claims: that’s nearly six teaspoons of sugar in a quarter-cup!
Candied walnuts. Imagine if your friend poured chocolate-covered almonds on top of her salad. You’d give him a funny look, right? That’s exactly what you do with candied walnuts and other nuts. Why would you take a perfectly healthy food – in this case, walnuts, which are rich in protein, healthy fats, fiber, and nutrients – and dunk them into sugar?
Glazed salmon. Another perfectly healthy food become sugar corrupted. Anything glazed on the menu (think donuts) provides a big red flag for high-sugar impact food.
Crunchy anything. Determined we need more crunch (you mean a salad isn’t crunchy enough already?), restaurants dump wonton chips, croutons, and breaded chicken strips atop a gargantuan salad. Translate any ingredient described as “crunchy” or “crispy” as “stay away for fast fat loss.”
Croutons and bread accompaniments. Why are restaurants such adamant bread pushers, from the big basket they set upon your arrival to that pita slab on your salad? Besides stimulating your appetite, bread provides a gateway to ordering dessert.
Solution: Don’t Let the Menu Dictate your Choices
You needn’t settle for that high-sugar impact restaurant salad. Nothing on a menu is ever written in stone. You’re in charge, so politely ask your server to modify your meal.

Salads needn’t become boring. Load them with lots of green veggies, sliced avocado, grilled chicken or salmon, and slivered almonds. If you’re not dairy intolerant, swap the bleu cheese for a little goat cheese.

Skip the creamy, sugary dressings for extra-virgin olive oil and vinegar. Once you get the hang of it, you can transform any restaurant into a fat-burning, low-sugar impact meal.