There has been a trend in the fast food industry towards offering consumers healthier alternatives to the staple choices found in Americas most common restaurant chains. In the face of national exposure and criticism following the independent film “Super Size Me”, McDonalds stopped offering the mega-serving portions and expanded their salad menu. Wendy’s had already realized the salad market, but moved away from the all-you-can-eat salad bar to the individual portion, specialty menu. Burger King, also realizing the financial importance of the trend started offering more salad selections to go with their normal menu choices.

The idea of course, is to allow people on-the-go the convenience of the fast food restaurant, or those eating with others that gravitate to the “Bun-on-the-Run”, with a healthy alternative to the burger and fries. This well advertised effort is being used as part of a campaign to show positive contribution by these corporations to the nation’s obesity problem. Due to the fact that tens of millions of people consume fast food everyday it would stand to reason if people actually make the switch to the salads from the burgers or fried chicken commonly consumed, their would be a reduction in the average persons caloric intake.

To identify the actual difference in calories it is important to calculate the energy being consumed and to identify the reduction of risk factors for disease the actual nutrition of each food should be reviewed. This can be accomplished by going to the food chains website and reviewing the nutritional facts. Below are some excerpts from the different fast food chains menus. The list includes the salads from each restaurant and a reference food such as a cheeseburger for comparisons.

Food	Calories	Fat	Sat	Chol	Fiber	Sodium	Fat Cals %
Wendys
Homestyle Chicken strip salad	450	22	8	70	4	1190
Honey mustard dressing	670	45	12	85	5	1770	60%
Chicken BLT Salad	340	18	9	105	4	840
Creamy ranch dressing	680	46	13	130	5	1340	63%
Mandarin Chicken Salad	170	2	0.5	60	3	480
Oriental sesame dressing	550	26	3.5	60	6	1210	42%
Taco Supreme Salad	380	17	9	65	9	1000
w/salsa and chips	660	29	12	75	12	1700	39%
Spring mix salad	180	11	6	30	4	230
House Vinaigrette	440	31	9	30	5	1100	63%
Classic Single	420	19	7	65	2	900	40%
BurgerKing
Tendercrisp Garden Salad	410	22	5	40	3	1110
KENs honey mustard dressing	680	45	8	60	4	1500	40%
Tendergrill Chicken Salad	230	8	3	60	3	840
KENS Ranch	410	28	6	80	4	1750	60%
Side Garden salad	160	2	0	0	4	15
KENS Light Italian	280	11	1.5	0	5	440	35%
Cheese burger	350	17	8	50	1	770	43%
Taco Bell
Express Taco Salad w/chips	540	24	7	35	11	1350	40%
Taco	170	10	4	25	1	350	52%
McDonalds
Bacon Ranch Salad	140	7	3.5	25	3	820
w/dressing	310	22	6	45	3	530	63%
Caesar Salad	90	4	2.5	10	3	180
w/dressing	280	22	6	30	3	680	70%
California Cobb Salad	160	9	4	85	4	410
w/dressing	280	18	5.5	95	4	850	57%
Cheeseburger	310	12	3.5	40	1	740	34%

As you can see there is a notable difference once the salad dressing has been added. Interestingly the end product is worse than the reference food in each category. This suggests that if the average consumer selects the salad rather than the burger or taco they may actually be consuming more calories, fat, and sodium. Fitness professionals should help to disseminate this information to their clients. Just because the word salad is included in the title does not necessarily mean “good food” selection. The pitfalls of eating out are significant, as many people who routinely eat at restaurants or on-the-go wind up consuming a notably higher number of calories, and in particular, calories from fat, processed carbohydrates and sugar. This has even more relevance for individuals who have hypertension or CAD. The amount of sodium is excessive and saturated fats are high. Helping people to understand what is in the foods they consume is an important step in enhancing their health and fitness.