For too long, fast-food chains have long ignored the salad. Now they are making the effort to include the salad consumer, with so many varieties from the taco salad at Wendy's to the Asian chicken salad at McDonald's. Yes, with so many choices also comes the news that your salad may not be as healthy for you as you might seem to think.

This news comes as I am now a regular consumer of the fruit & walnut salad at McDonald's. I sometimes eat the other salads as well. Jack in the Box has also spiced up their salad menu by what I've seen, as well as Wendy's. Only now, I see that maybe I'm making some poorer diet choices than I had thought.

Salad is still healthy, and the fat is necessary to digest certain vitamins. If you're working out the calories aren't too bad. The best thing is to make your own salad and dressing, I'm sure they put los of sugar into those fast food dressings.

Yes...and thats the culprit in this country. Its not so much fat as it is sugar. The epidemic of obesity in children in this country is mostly due to the fact that their sugar intake is outrageous. Too much soda and snacks with sugar in it. Too many carbs and then too much sitting and doing nothing afterward. There is sugar in so much that we eat. I have really cut back on my sugar intake and eat as little sugar during the week as I can.

But yes...I used to think I was doing something when I would buy those Wendys or McDonald's salads only to find that I might as well have just ordered a Big Mac. I remember a study that was done once where they grabbed people from different restaurants and asked to test their salads for the amount of sugar and fat in it. I was astonished by the results. I think the only person that had a decent salad was some lady at Cosi who made her own salad and it was only spinach leaves with tomatoes and a light vinegarette. I mean some things I obviously knew. People trip me out who make a salad and add cheese, pepperoni, ham, and all kinds of junk, and then top it off with a cream based dressing. So basically with my salads now, I only use vinegarette dressing and pretty much keep it to mixed greens or spinach leaves with some tomatoes, onions, black olives, cucumbers, and carrots. Sometimes I add egg and every now and then I'll throw in a little cheese just because the same ole same ole gets boring.