Rant: "Ceasar Salad & Pasta Salad are Healthy!"

I can't get over the lack of knowledge people have about the foods they eat.

Our company was hosting a BBQ today. I was happy eating my sandwich and apple, but my co-worker (who claims to be dieting to lose 10 pounds by Halloween) runs back up here to tell me and this other girl "They have healthy things down there too! Ceasar salad and pasta salad!"

I looked at her because I thought she was totally joking and said "Yea, really healthy" in a sarcastic manner. She flat out said "Cesasar salad is healthy. It's SALAD!". Then I had to burst her bubble that the average restaurant cesasar salad contains more calories than their cheeseburger. She said "yea, okay.."

Nevermind.

She also thinks muffins from starbucks are healthy.

Anyone know people that do this too? Drives me batty.

I agree with you that unfortunately, many people are ignorant about the calorie content of commonly served foods.

But remember, there is a difference between healthy and calorie dense. Caesar salad still does have lettuce and vegetables in it, so it's still a healthy food--whether or not someone goes and pours on excessive amounts of dressing, they are still veggies.

I once had a friend who went on a diet. She ate tons of nuts and claimed they were very healthy. Yes, they are healthy, but they are not diet-friendly when you consume a 1,000 calorie pack of almonds as a mid morning snack.

I was with my sister at Target and she wanders off....when she comes back she has three or four different Luna bar-ish things.

'I'm trying to lose weight and I need some snacks, are these good for you?' she asks....

I flip one over, 'uh...240 calories....you'd be better off eating fruit.'

I love the people who raid the salad bar, putting more ham and Ranch dressing on their plates than lettuce, thinking they're doing something good by eating a salad.  Then they're all, "Hey!  Chicken is protein, let's add some fried chicken wings to this!  It's probably going to be the healthiest thing in this whole cafeteria!"

Well there was a lot of stuff I didn't know before I started really paying attention...but cmon ceasar sald is clearly loaded with fatty dressing! My bf didn't realize that until he met me though...he was one of the people under the impression that if it says "salad", it must be low-calorie. And when I sent him the nutritionals for a Whopper...well he hasn't been back to Burger King since. I wish there was a nice, non-preachy way of letting interested people know what is in stuff! I think a lot of people are trying to eat healthy and be calorie-conscious, but just can't be bothered to research it, so could just use a little help!

There is a show on tv, can't remember which one, how -to-look-good-cook-yourself-thin type thing, and they have a segment where they take three dishes and go around asking people which they think is highest in calories. People are rarely right.....mind you it's kind of biased, because they don't tell you how the items were prepared (eg three slices of pizza were higher than a cheeseburger and fries and a big plate of indian food...well they wouldn't have been the way I make them!!)

And the bars - lots of people don't realize they are meal replacements, not healthy "snacks", because they are marketed as being so healthy. I am really glad for Luna bars and such...because sometimes I don't have time to grab breakfast and if I don't get some protein, fat, and carbs in in the morning there's real trouble - but I would certainly not munch on a couple for snacks.

And don't even get me started on the fat-free/ sugar-free scam. Some people believe that if it's sugar-free or fat-free, then it's a free food! Have you seen that popcorn ad, "Go ahead, stuff your face!" OMG yeah that's a great message. Yikes. I am really glad that I am aware that other things can contribute to an item's calorie count...once I almost bought a sugar-free chocolate bar, until I read the nutritionals and it had more cals than a regular one because of all the fat. Yikes.

Well I guess that got a bit ranty. Hehe.

God, I WISH they were healthy.

Better yet, healthy ceasar pasta salad.

It's salad!

I think what mutt lover said about healthy food vrs. calorie dense food sums it up pretty good. It's ashame that not everyone knows that calorie counting is the way to go!

I have some friends like that, I just ignore them and let them live in their own little world because they think they are always right. It's always funny when they don't get why they aren't loosing weight...

Hehe...this reminds me of my roommate this past summer.  He does in fact eat very healthily (you would never guess the food in our kitchen belonged to 2 university students) but he had been enthusiastically enjoying daily salads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing for several weeks. 

One day he asked me why he was getting fat (he's pretty skinny, but you could kinda tell in his stomach).  So I pointed out that he had been going through an entire bottle of olive oil every other week or so.  And then I had him pour out the oil he would put on his salad on my food scale, and it was about 50g.  He was a bit shocked at how many calories that translated too, and even more horrified that he sometimes had two salads a day.  To say the least, he now uses my scale to weigh out 20g of oil for his salads instead of free-pouring, appreciating that it still tastes the same and that the stomach pudge has dissappeared.

And his blonde comment of the day: "Wow, olive oil is really high in fat, isn't it."

Oh my gosh, I have this same issue with some of my friends!!! My roommate thinks she's being healthy when she goes to Jamba Juice for smoothies. At one point she was having 2 large smoothies a day...as snacks. She was horrified to learn that those 2 smoothies were adding up to 1200 calories a day. And then she refuses to eat bread, potatoes or rice after lunch because they're carbs, but she'll eat sushi covered in mayo and fried or fried chicken wings with ranch dressing...okay thats healthy (NOT)

Give her a break man. She's not on CC. You can't expect people to know that stuff. If I weren't a member on here I Would probably think the same as her.