How Does Your Garden Salad Grow? Ranking 7 Fast-Food Salads from Best to Worst

Burger King: not even once.

The new Cantina Bowls at Taco Bell are basically the chain's version of a burrito bowl from places such as Freebird's and Chipotle: lettuce and other vegetables on a bed of black beans and rice. Even taken with steak -- the premium option -- this is one of the best choices on the list. The salsa-style dressing that comes with it is tasty and light, and while the guacamole adds fat and calories, it could be much worse (and it tastes pretty good, too). This salad is close to McDonald's when it comes to having low saturated fat levels (3.5 grams) and low cholesterol (tied with Chick-Fil-A at 60 grams), plus it has the lowest sugar content of any other salad on this list. The salad is offered as a package deal with a bag of tortilla chips and more guacamole, however. Don't do that. Come on, now.

6. Wendy's Apple Pecan Chicken Salad
Calories: 710
Fat: 38 grams

Wendy's really outdoes itself here, with a salad that already features 570 calories and 27 grams of fat before the dressing is added. An Italian vinaigrette, at that. With 36 grams of sugar, it's also the sweetest of the salads -- not something you're generally looking for in a healthy meal. It's the one salad on the list that breaks the 100 mark with its cholesterol count: 115 milligrams. But believe it or not, this woeful salad (which doesn't even taste that great) isn't the worst on the list.

7. Burger King Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad with Grilled Chicken
Calories: 850
Fat: 48 grams

Well, that got out of hand quickly. We sped right past the 600 and 700 calorie ranges right into the nearly-900-calories-in-a-salad range, which is a pretty sad place to find ourselves. Despite buzzwordy ingredients that make this salad sound healthy, BK's fruit-filled salad is a mess. Even before dressing, it's got 560 calories and 30 grams of fat -- the highest fat content of any undressed salad on the list -- and is pushing 1,000 grams of sodium. The sugar is out of control, too: 37 grams. By comparison, a Whopper is healthier for you than this salad. It only has 650 calories, 35 grams of fat and 3 grams of sugar. A Whopper. Jesus.