Many are super-sized with excess calories and fat

I LOVE GREENS, and I usually eat a salad at least once a day. Really, what could be healthier? Salads are low in calories, delicious and nutritious, right?

Well, that depends on what's in them. Just because it's called "salad" doesn't mean the meal is low in calories or even nutritious.

As we did with burgers and muffins, we have managed to super-size and fatten up the honorable salad, especially on restaurant menus. Boston Market's Chicken Caesar Salad, for example, has 800 calories and a whopping 62 grams of fat - practically a day's worth. That's also 200 more calories and 31 more fat grams than a Big Mac, according to a recent study by Consumer Reports.

Here are five popular salads that may be sabotaging your health and fitness.

• Chicken Caesar salad: According to the "standard recipe" listed on its Web site, the Cosi restaurant chain estimates its chicken Caesar contains 641 calories and 48 grams of fat. Add that irresistible hot bread (265 calories) on the side, and you're looking at a grand total of 906 calories. The salad also has 149 milligrams of cholesterol and 934 grams of sodium.

• Chef's salad: Even calculating the numbers with half the salad dressing, a typical chef's salad has 900 calories and 71 grams of fat, according to the book "Restaurant Confidential" by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit education and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

• Cobb salad: With its generous portions of chicken, bacon, blue cheese and avocado, the typical Cobb salad could easily set you back 1,200-plus calories and 90 grams of fat. Yeah, that salad's like a heart attack on a plate.

• Spinach salad: Spinach is the king of vegetables, full of nutrients and packed with flavor, not calories. However, a spinach salad layered with bacon, hard-boiled egg yolks and high-fat dressing is a recipe for clogged arteries.

• Chicken finger salad: A typical four-piece chicken finger appetizer is roughly 600 calories and 40 grams of fat. Throw that on some lettuce, add cheese and salad dressing, and you're asking for trouble. Trust me, you don't want to know the calorie total for this lethal combo!

Make it healthy

So what can you do to cut calories and fat from salads?

• If a salad comes with cheese, meat and nuts, select just one or ask for half-servings of each. These items are high in protein as well as fat.

• Always ask for your dressing on the side and dip or drizzle it on with a fork. This will save hundreds of calories. Most restaurants use 2 or more ounces of dressing. Two tablespoons is the recommended serving size.

• Remember, most restaurant servings are two to three times the recommended size. For instance, the recommended serving of chicken is 3 ounces, but restaurants usually give you 6 to 9 ounces. That doubles and triples fat and calories.

• Mix your greens. Try romaine, spring mix, arugula, radicchio or spinach.

• Instead of meat and cheese, use beans and whole grains like quinoa and couscous on your salads.

• Tease your palate with zesty fruits, colorful vegetables and nuts for texture. (But remember, a portion of nuts equals just one ounce.)

• Many restaurants serve bread or rolls with salads. The warm, chewy bread may be comforting, but if you're trying to lose a few pounds, ditch the dough.

Eating wisely

The federal government does not require restaurants to provide full nutritional information, according to CSPI, nor are independent laboratory menu analyses required.

Restaurants like T.G.I. Friday's may list nutritional information on their menus, but even that must be read carefully. For example, "net carbs" are given for some items, but that doesn't mean they aren't loaded with fat and calories.

As for items that are labeled "low-calorie," the numbers sometimes tell a different story. On the T.G.I. Friday's low-calorie menu, Santa Fe Chicken Salad and Bruschetta Tilapia are each listed as containing 500 calories and 10 grams of fat. According to FDA standards, a "low-fat" serving should contain no more than 3 grams of fat.

In the end, you can't trust restaurants to police your diet or to provide precise nutritional information. Portion sizes may vary, and servers often don't know what's in the food they serve.

Especially when it comes to salads and other supposedly low-calorie, low-fat dishes, it's a case of diner beware.