Tray-Loading Strategy

Defensive salad bar dining need not be bland or flavorless. Try these options:

* Salad dressings: Vinegar splashes, lemon wedges, salsa, reduced calorie dressing. Can’t resist blue cheese or a regular dressing? Have it on the side--it’s much easier to drizzle on a salad with a fork than with a cumbersome ladle.

* Prepared salads: Be selective--don’t feel obligated to sample each one. Consider topping a salad with your “must have” prepared salad--it can double as a dressing.

* Best to limit: Fatty toppings such as bacon, cheese and sunflower seeds, and prepared salads such as potato salad, coleslaw and other creamy salads.

* Load up on: Fresh fruits, vegetables, kidney and garbanzo beans.

How do your favorite salad bar items compare?

Salads: Calories (1/4 cup portion), % Calories From Fat Chicken salad: 133 83% Coleslaw: 90 55% Egg salad: 110 79% Macaroni salad: 93 80% Pasta salad: 130 42% Potato salad: 90 67% Three-bean salad: 45 trace Tuna salad: 96 45% Waldorf: 106 88%

Toppings: Total Calories, % Calories From Fat Avocado, 1/4: 84 86% Bacon bits, 2 tablespoons: 54 53% Cheddar cheese, shredded, 2 tablespoons: 57 74% Chow mein noodles, 2 tablespoons: 30 52% Coconut, 2 tablespoons: 35 85% Croutons, 2 tablespoons: 14 8% Crumbled bacon, 2 tablespoons: 36 78% Granola, 2 tablespoons: 74 50% Olives, 5: 26 83% Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons: 46 43% Raisins, 2 tablespoons: 54 trace Sunflower seeds, 2 tablespoons: 104 84%

Dressings: Calories (4 Tablespoons), % Calories From Fat Blue cheese: 309 91% Caesar’s: 204 91% French: 268 84% Italian: 274 91% Italian, low-calorie: 28 0% Mayonnaise-type: 229 77% Olive oil (100%): 477 100% Ranch: 218 92% Russian: 302 90% Thousand island: 336 83% Vinegar: 7 0%