Soup and Salad Bar: Avoiding A Diet Disaster
My brother and I went to the Souplantation for lunch yesterday. Souplantation is a soup and salad bar.
Thinking we would get a low calorie lunch, loaded with veggies and fiber, we were so excited. . . Little did we know that we had fallen into a dietary disaster.
Soup and Salad bars are great alternatives to any restaurant, but if you don’t watch it, your meal could become worse than just ordering hamburger, fries, and a shake at McDonalds.
Now, you are probably thinking, how can you go wrong with a salad? These little suckers are so deceiving! Just because there are veggies on your plate, doesn’t mean it’s healthy when they are swimming in a pool of ranch dressing and loaded with cheese and croutons.
And salad bars usually don’t just come with a salad. At Souplantation you get the bakery, soups, and dessert all added into your meal. Who can resist those cute little muffins screaming, “Pick Me, Pick Me?”
Seconds anyone? Because salad bars are coined healthy, people usually enjoy going back for seconds. I always use the excuse that I need to get my money’s worth. But really, one large full plate is more than enough. Going back for round two can sabotage your diet and lead you into further temptation when you walk by those muffins screaming your name… don’t torture yourself like that!
Healthy and all, these types of places deceive people into think that they are eating healthy, so 
they go on a free for all. . . eating everything in sight. It’s dangerous people! They really should have a warning sign up or something. I had to rolled out of the restaurant by the time I was done.
Here are some tips that will help you stay within your daily calorie budget when eating at a Salad Bar.
* Go in with a plan! Know what you want to eat and what you want to avoid
* Skip out on the pre-tossed salads! These salads can have hundreds of calories and fat
* Get the dressing on the side and dip your fork into it instead of drowning your poor little veggies
* Skip out on croutons and bacon bits. These bad boys are loaded with fat and unnecessary calories
* Watch out for pasta salads. They usually are not as healthy as you think
* Choose a vegetable soup if soups are available
* Get only one side to your salad
* I would say skip the bakery all together, but who am I kidding… limit yourself to one and skip the butter and honey.
* Opt out of the ice cream and head towards the fruit and jello.
Question: What is your favorite Soup and Salad Bar Restaurant and what do you enjoy to eat there?
I love Souplantation / Sweet Tomato… they are the same company.
The blueberry and bran muffins are my favorite. The best part are the tops!
Tags: Diet, Healthy, Pasta Salad, Salad Bar, salad restaurants, Salads, Soup, Soup and Salad Bar, Souplantation, Sparkpeople, Weight Watchers, weightloss
August 18th, 2009 at 3:27 am
Agreed! Great salad bar tips! : )
August 18th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Great advice! My favorite salad bar is probably Ruby Tuesdays.
August 18th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Salad bars can be good or bad. When I was obese, they were bad, bad, bad. But now, I can go without worrying I will pig out!!
Here in our town, Ruby Tuesday probably has the best one around.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:36 am
i don’t know about you but i TOTALLY put muffins on my salad =)
August 18th, 2009 at 5:38 am
I really, really hate buffets for exactly this reason: too tempting to go nuts.
And then, if you don’t eat a ton, you always feel like you’ve been ripped off.
I steer clear.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Yes, salad bars can be very deceiving… Great tips! My hubby loves Sweet Tomato, but we haven’t been in a long time.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:52 am
thank you for this post girl! i used to tell myself that because i was having a “salad” i was eating healthy – little did i know with all that ranch dressing and cheese i might as well have been eating a burger and fries!
August 18th, 2009 at 8:17 am
After working at restaurants in my college days and knowing what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ sometimes – I often get a little grossed out by food that just sits out on a line. If it gets too picked-over-looking then I just pass all together. That’s not to say that I am never tempted – I always manage to find something I want to eat, that’s not a problem!!
August 18th, 2009 at 8:37 am
I LOVE your tips so keep em coming. Those pasta salads always draw me in :\ I just have to remember they are usually calorie bombs!
August 18th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I like salad/soup bars because I love the veggies so much that I don’t have a problem with skipping out on the fatty dressings and croutons etc.
I really love smearing some hummus on my salads and using it as a “dressing”. Tossing in some raisins or chickpeas is tasty, too.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:36 am
All your tips are always fabulous. Salad bars can be a free-for-all can’t they? It’s so tempting to load them up with treats you would never normally have.
I like the whole foods bar though. Yum
August 18th, 2009 at 11:00 am
You’re right, so many items at a salad bar can add up to too many calories, like croutons, cheese, extra dressing, and bacon bits. At salad bars I try to stick w/ fresh veggies, oil and vinegar dressing, and sometimes nuts or seeds.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I am not one to be fooled by these things BUT I just don’t go to them period. Kind of a waste of my money since I am not going to eat enough & I just prefer other things. I really don’t eat out a lot because I like to control my food & what I eat. I know, OCD but I am when it comes to exercise & my food!
Great post for those that need this info though! Hard to believe people still don’t get this.. or maybe they don’t wan to get it!
August 18th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Great post! I love souper salad! But I try to go only on my laxed days and stay away from the desserts
August 18th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Ditto on the muffins. Honestly i just steer clear of buffets in general because if I’m really eating healthy i never get my money’s worth. If some one else is paying I’ll fill up on protein and salad first then keep the desert to my absolute favorite…or the muffin =)
August 18th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
If only people understood this concept better. Seriously, they all assume that if it includes greens and healthy fruits and veggies, it must not be bad for their health. In reality, after loading on the dressing (and not even loading it on, two T is 100 calories!) and piling on the bacon and cheese, you could eat three bowls of broccoli and it wouldn’t make up for it. Ugh.
August 19th, 2009 at 6:47 am
I never really go to salad bars! My Mom keeps telling me about this great one at a place called Charlie Browns though. Apparently they have all different kinds of couscous options. Maybe this will motivate me to take her there one day soon!
August 19th, 2009 at 7:00 am
I always make it a priority to go to Sweet Tomatoes when I visit Florida in the winter, but up north I like good ol’ Country Buffett. I am pretty disciplined at buffetts, so I never seem to have a problem!
September 11th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
This is an AWESOME post!!!!! Glad I saw it… I know it’s older but I still wanted to comment and let you know!
-A