If you’re ordering out, you’d probably think a nice, big, veggie-packed salad would be the healthiest option.
But while fresh vegetables are always a great choice, you might be surprised to learn there could be more sugar lurking in your lunch than you’d expect – especially when you start lashing on the sauces.
Quitting sugar? Give these sugary extras a miss next time your salad order is up.
Culprit #1: Creamy dressings.
We don’t have anything against creamy dressings per se – our Homemade Mayonnaise is delicious! But some manufacturers add sugar to their creamy dressings to bulk up the flavour and keep us coming back for a sweet hit.
Case in point? Jamaica Blue’s Caesar Salad contains more than two teaspoons of sugar per 241g serve. Most of that comes from the dressing, which contains both added sucrose and glucose.
Culprit #2: Sweet vinaigrette.
A little apple cider vinegar and extra virgin olive oil mixed together is fine. But store-bought and readymade vinaigrettes often sweeten the deal with sugar (especially balsamic versions!).
The Chicken Pomegranate & Goat’s Cheese Salad from Grill’d contains a vinaigrette which lists sugar as the second ingredient. The total sugar tally in this salad is 2.5 teaspoons per 264g serve.
Culprit #3: Seaweed salad.
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about all seaweed! But seaweed salad (the fluoro green tendrils you buy at the sushi bar) is often coated in a simple sugar dressing.
Just have a look at Sushi Izu’s “Seabreeze Salad”, which has nearly two teaspoons of sugar in a serve. Better to stick to the fresh sashimi.
Culprit #4: Dried fruit.
We’ve noticed it’s increasingly common for salads to come with a sprinkle of raisins (or craisins!). Stay in your trail mix and out of our lunches!
The Large Autumn Harvest Salad from Sumo Salad is a prime example. With a balsamic vinaigrette to boot, the dried cranberries bring the sugar up to 6.5 teaspoons per 400g serve. That’s more than the World Health Organization recommends you should have in one day.
Culprit #5: Candied nuts!
Would you like some candy with your salad? Hey, it’s not as out there as you might think!
The Coffee Club features a Roasted Beetroot Feta & Candied Walnut Salad, which, unsurprisingly, has 3.5 teaspoons of sugar per 230g serve. Needless to say, we’d avoid all salads with the mention of candy!
How do you order a healthy salad?
While the above are the worst offenders, you can still buy a healthy salad from most places.
- Dressing down: Ask for your salad without dressing, or on the side. You can also ask for extra virgin olive oil instead.
- Build your own: Some cafés and salad bars will let you toss your own salad, so to speak. Focus on lots of fresh veg and plenty of protein, so you don’t get hungry later.
- Seek nutritional information. Many places now provide ingredients and nutritional info. Sumo Salad is great for this – it even has a feature where you can see EXACTLY how much sugar each ingredient adds.
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