The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog: Hey, I was Eating That!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Wendy's New Salads: Nutritional Nightmare
Wendy's Restaurants have some new salads on the menu; let's check them out. Usually fast food restaurant salads are a nutritional nightmare; loaded with fat and sodium, and ultra high calorie, so be aware if you think you're eating low calorie just because it's a salad.
Go to their website and you run into the problem of needing the latest version of Flash, just to see their nutritional information which is a bad idea. Not everyone has the most up-to-date computer equipment and not everyone is interested in downloading and installing new software just so they can see information that should be presented in a way that no special software is required. After I endured the install process, (have to quit the browser, search for the file, etc., etc.) the page with nutritional info never loaded! Cripes.
For Mandarin Chicken Salad they list 180 calories for the salad. Oh, but wait one minute. There's more, like another 70 calories for the crispy noodles (that seems low, plus they are deep fried and loaded with sodium), and 130 more calories for roasted almonds, and an additional 170 calories for oriental sesame dressing. The real total is 550 calories. Why do they make it difficult?
They don't serve the salad in a bunch of separate bowls so you can pick and choose whether you want the almonds or the crispy noodles, so listing the nutritional information separately is just an attempt to mislead the public. Shame on you Wendys.
The Southwest Taco Salad starts with 400 calories, then add 45 for the "reduced fat acidified sour cream" (sounds real appetizing), 110 calories for Tortilla Strips and another 90 for the dressing and we are now eating a 645 calorie salad, which is starting to be ridiculous.
Don't be mislead. Salads at fast food restaurants are rarely a good thing. The "extras" add up to enormous calories, fat and sodium. Sometimes even a cheeseburger is a better nutritional value than a salad.
