Are Salads Actually Healthy or Just a Big Lettucey Lie? A Dietitian Weighs In

Salads tend to have a health halo around them, so we automatically assume they're good for us before we even look at their nutritional value. But are salads really that healthy?

Serious question, though. What's in your salad? What kind of toppings are you working with? Are you even eating all of it or are you throwing lots of lettuce away?

Salads can be healthy, registered dietitian Lisa Eberly told POPSUGAR. Think of the components of a great salad — greens, veggies, and nuts and seeds — all good! But there are so many ways a salad can go wrong. If you have to force yourself to eat something (looking at you, kale), chances are you're not going to finish your meal. Either that, or you're going to try to mask that one thing with unhealthy ingredients, like crazy-fatty dressings and toppings that aren't necessarily nutritious.

We're not here to salad-bash, though. Let's take a look at the pros and cons and how to make salads healthier, tastier, and easier to eat.

Tons of Nutrition: If you enjoy leafy greens and raw veggies, then congratulations! You're getting a ton of nutrients from wholesome veggies. And if you balance your salad well with nuts, seeds, and colorful produce, you'll be nourishing your body in a simple, low-calorie way.

It Helps You Live Longer: "Arugula, kale, and cabbage are cruciferous vegetables and are amazing at fighting oxidation," said Lisa. Why is this important? "Oxidation causes cancer, Alzheimer's, and most chronic diseases." So you want those antioxidants! "Oxidation is essentially rust in the body that takes about 80 years on average to kill us, and cruciferous veggies slow it down." More salad means a longer life.

Food Waste: Are you even eating those greens? Or did you excavate your bowl of greens in search of croutons? If you're not really eating it, it's not healthy! More often than not, salad greens end up getting tossed. "Food waste is a serious problem, people," Lisa said. "It should be something everyone is mindful of." She noted that you can cut down on waste if you "pack your own salads from home with reusable containers and the right portions that you'll eat, buy salads with dressing on the side so you can eat it all week, and if you don't like something on your salad, order it without that item."

The Health Halo: As mentioned before, there's a huge health halo around salads, so you assume that they're healthy no matter what kind of toppings and dressing you pile on. Be mindful of calories, fat, and sugar, etc. If you're layering croutons and Thousand Island on a mountain of nutrient-devoid iceberg lettuce, you're not really doing yourself a service. In that case, Lisa said, "You might as well order the cheeseburger."

While you want some healthy fats on your salad to help your body absorb the nutrients from veggies, there is such a thing as too much. "Essentially, all dressings at restaurants are too high in fat," Lisa said. She reiterated the idea that salad doesn't always mean healthy — "more than half of the salads you order at restaurants are more unhealthy than their counterparts."

So let's say you still want to give salads a go, but you want to ensure that 1) you're getting optimal nutrition, and 2) you're not wasting food. Here's her advice.