Salad Bar Strategies

Salad Bar Survival

Provided By Men's Health

Eighteen salad-bar survival tips to eat by.

Alfalfa sprouts
Don't bother with these little health-food frauds. Half a cup provides only traces of nutrients. But they are virtually calorie-free, so if you actually like their dank flavor, knock yourself out.


Radishes
No matter how you slice 'em, these are roots. What's worse, they're roots without a nutritional leg to stand on. You'd need to eat half a cup to take in a gram (g) of fiber, which isn't enough to keep even a rabbit regular.


Cauliflower
Broccoli's bleached cousin has only a fraction of the vitamin C and beta-carotene. You're better off doubling up on broccoli and skipping this pale imitator.


Mushrooms
They're not poisonous, hallucinogenic, or nutritious -- skip them.


Creamy salads
A.K.A. the white death. If you must have some slaw or, worse, macaroni salad (3/4 cup = 26 grams of fat!), at least place it over raw vegetables. The mayo will double as salad dressing.


Carrots
Shredding gives raw carrots a whole new quality: They become edible. Mix, don't top, your salad with a quarter cup of them, and you'll be eating nearly a whole day's worth of beta-carotene.


Sunflower seeds
A few spoonfuls have potassium and magnesium to lower blood pressure, plus folate to help prevent heart disease.


Black olives
While these little fat bombs won't hurt your heart, they won't help it much either. You'd need to eat 10 to get just 3 g of cholesterol-lowering monounsaturated fat.


Chickpeas
Despite the name, this isn't something you'd find in Penthouse. Half a cup has 6 g of protein, 5 g of fiber, and some B vitamins.