11 Unhealthiest Restaurant Salads With Tons of Sugar—Ranked

Salads are often seen as the quintessential "healthy" option at chain restaurants. After all, a giant plate of veggies seems like a better choice than a fatty burger, right? Unfortunately, this isn't always true. In fact, some salads are among the unhealthiest, most sugar-laden dishes on the menu.

Popular restaurant chains like The Cheesecake Factory, Red Lobster, and Applebee's offer salads that appear to be good for you but can contain sugary add-ins, dressings, and batters that negate their healthful ingredients. Too much added sugar snuck into dressings, sauces, and glazes can increase the risk of blood sugar spikes, cravings, weight gain, and health problems like diabetes and heart disease.

To help you identify—and avoid—sugary menu items, we identified 11 of the unhealthiest restaurant salads and ranked them from least to most sugar-packed. We'll also share modifications for how you can lower the sugar content of your salads without sacrificing flavor. For more on the sweet stuff, don't miss 7 Warning Signs You're Eating Too Much Sugar.

11 Highest-Sugar Salads

• Applebee's Strawberry Balsamic Chicken Salad
• Ruby Tuesday Honey-Glazed Salmon Bowl
• The Cheesecake Factory Santa Fe Salad
• Red Lobster Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp Salad
• Bonefish Grill Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad With Salmon
• The Cheesecake Factory Seared Ahi Tuna Salad
• Applebee's Oriental Grilled Chicken Salad
• The Cheesecake Factory Sheila's Chicken and Avocado Salad
• The Cheesecake Factory Chinese Chicken Salad
• The Cheesecake Factory Thai Chicken Salad
• The Cheesecake Factory Barbeque Ranch Chicken Salad

Applebee's Strawberry Balsamic Chicken Salad

Although it's the lowest-sugar item on our list, Applebee's Strawberry Balsamic Chicken Salad still contains a hefty 32 grams of sugar. Although it only contains a few ingredients, such as fresh greens, strawberries, and chicken, its balsamic glaze adds sweetness. Concentrated glazes like these often pack more sugar than necessary and negate the health-boosting benefits of the veggies.

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Ruby Tuesday Honey-Glazed Salmon Bowl

With honey right in its name, you know it's bound to be high in sugar. While salmon is a nutritional powerhouse, the Honey-Glazed Salmon Bowl at Ruby Tuesday packs a ton of hidden sugar from its honey garlic sauce made with molasses and syrup. It contains 36 grams of sugar, more than an entire day's worth for women, and matches the daily limit for men (which is also not a good thing).

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The Cheesecake Factory Santa Fe Salad

It appears innocent, but the Santa Fe Salad from The Cheesecake Factory sneaks in sauces and dressings that pile on the sugar. Its base contains nutritious ingredients like romaine lettuce, Roma tomatoes, and chicken, but the southwestern dressing and spicy peanut sauce ruin its healthfulness.

To reduce the sugar content on your own, ask your waitstaff to serve the dressing and sauce on the side so you can control how much you're adding in.

Red Lobster Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp Salad

The Parrot Isle Coconut Shrimp Salad at Red Lobster might sound appealing with its tropical flare, but it contains several hidden sources of added sugar. The coconut shrimp coating, mango salsa, and mango pineapple vinaigrette make this a dish that can spike your blood sugar to new heights. So, while many of the ingredients in this salad are harmless on their own, the salad dressing and shrimp breading (like many salads) reduce their benefits.

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Bonefish Grill Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad With Salmon

Brussels sprouts used to have an unappealing connotation but are now stealing the show on many plates. While healthy on their own, they are often topped with sugar-coated flavorings like the balsamic vinaigrette and glaze used in the Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Salmon at Bonefish Grill. If you love shaved Brussels sprouts, it is just as easy to buy a pre-made bag at the store and add your own light dressing or balsamic vinegar for flavor.

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The Cheesecake Factory Seared Ahi Tuna Salad

The Cheesecake Factory's Seared Ahi Tuna Salad contains ingredients such as ahi tuna, avocado, and edamame that appear low in sugar. However, it includes a honey-citrus dressing, likely the sugar-packed culprit. To lower the sugar content of this dish, ask for less dressing and to have it on the side. You can also opt for lemon juice or a splash of olive oil instead.

Applebee's Oriental Grilled Chicken Salad

The base of the Oriental Salad with Grilled Chicken at Applebee's is simple, but it's topped with a vinaigrette loaded with sugar and high fructose corn syrup. The crunchy noodles also contribute hidden sugars, often coated in sweetened glazes or fried in sugar-containing oils, topping off at 53 grams of sugar.

It's also very calorie-dense, packing close to 1500 calories, which can be an entire day's worth for some people.

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The Cheesecake Factory Sheila's Chicken and Avocado Salad

While it sounds light and refreshing, Sheila's Chicken and Avocado Salad from the Cheesecake Factory contains added sugars from several potential sources. The likely offenders include the cashews, which often are glazed in restaurants, fried tortilla strips, and the citrus honey peanut vinaigrette. To reduce the sugar content, ask your waitstaff if they can nix these glazed toppings and serve the vinaigrette in a smaller container on the side.

The Cheesecake Factory Chinese Chicken Salad

The Cheesecake Factory's Chinese Chicken Salad may look healthy, but it's another one with sugar-coated fix-ins. For starters, it contains mandarin oranges, which are often packed in sugary syrups, crispy noodles and wonton strips that may have sugar coatings, and a sesame-plum dressing made with added sugar.6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

It also contains close to 3,000 milligrams of sodium, 130% of the daily recommended limit, which can negatively impact heart health and blood pressure levels.

The Cheesecake Factory Thai Chicken Salad

The Cheesecake Factory's Thai Chicken Salad is one of the most sugary salads on its menu. The likely sugar culprits in this salad are the chicken strip marinade, peanut glaze, and Thai vinaigrette dressing it's coated in. This salad also exceeds the daily recommended sodium intake of 2,300 milligrams.

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The Cheesecake Factory Barbeque Ranch Chicken Salad

The Barbeque Ranch Chicken Salad at The Cheesecake Factory contains a whopping 64 grams of sugar, the highest on our list and the most sugary salad from The Cheesecake Factory. This amount of sugar is more than twice the recommended limit for women and 77% above the daily limit for men.

Barbecue sauce is notoriously high in sugar, and the dressing on this salad is like eating candy. It's also topped with lots of crispy fried onion strings for crunch, which we suspect may sneak in an additional coating as well. In addition, it's the highest-calorie salad on the Cheesecake Factory menu at nearly 2,000 calories.

Asking for dressing on the side and skipping sugary toppings can make this and others on our list more balanced and healthful salad choices.

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