4 reasons you should skip that airport salad

Eating a salad at some point during the day has attained brushing-my-teeth status—it’s that good-for-me thing I just kind of do without really thinking about. (And judging by the never-ending line at Sweetgreen, I’m not alone in that habit.)

So I can’t help but have an internal freak out when I get to the airport before a long flight and face a fridge full of salads that…well, just don’t look appetizing. (I’m talking about terminals that haven’t gotten the healthy guide treatment by The Glassy, natch.) It’s my own personal Sophie’s Choice moment: Is this clamshell filled with translucent white iceberg lettuce and rock-hard croutons really that much better for me than mandarin chicken at Panda Express? (Which, FWIW, is Goop-approved.)

“Salad isn’t always the better option.”

I brought up the question to Kelly Maia Agnew, a certified nutritional practitioner, to find out if there are times when it’s worth skipping airport greens. “For sure, salad isn’t always the better option,” she tells me.

It turns out that not all salads are created equal—especially not at the airport (or train station, or gas station, or anywhere else you might find a pre-made option). Here are four questions to ask yourself the next time you’re seeing green at the terminal.

Does this look like a vegetable?

That’s not a joke. If you find a salad, but the contents are questionable—maybe it’s a slimy cucumber, or a mealy tomato—you should skip it. “If the produce doesn’t look good, you’re better off with something else,” says Agnew.

Is that a dark, leafy green?

“Iceberg isn’t doing a lot for you,” admits Agnew. Same goes for romaine—and that’s before you consider the current E. coli outbreak. Opt instead for the usual suspects; “kale and spinach are heavy hitters,” she adds, so the deeper the green, the better. (We see you, baby kale salad at LGA.)

Can I name the ingredients in the dressing?

Foil packet dressing: so convenient, but also so often filled with crap. (Like, why does a salad need sugar on top of it?) Or you might get a salad that’s been pre-tossed, which means it’s dripping in something that’s definitely not finesse (sorry, Bruno Mars). “You don’t know what’s in the dressing—they can be really high sugar or really high fat,” explains Agnew. When in doubt, opt instead for a few lemon slices and a dash of olive oil.

Was it freshly made?

There’s a reason why “fresh as lettuce” is a saying. (Just ask Tom Brady.) If, say, your greens look wilted or your grated carrots dried out, that probably means your salad’s been sitting out for way longer than your average layover. Agnew agrees: “If you’re looking at it and thinking it’s been sitting there for a while, the nutrients are probably depleted.” She recommends skipping the grab-and-go spots in favor of terminal-side restaurants that can compose yours in real time. “It might be a bit more expensive but I can trust the quality and get the dressing on the side,” she adds.

You Might Like

In Transit

Is motorcycle riding the next frontier of wellness travel?

Think of it as moving meditation.

In Transit

“Traveler’s constipation” is a thing

Let’s talk about how you, ahem, deal with it.

In Transit

In defense of *not* working out when you travel

Wellness pro Claire Fountain thinks you should order room service instead.

In Transit

We should all be practicing sleep hygiene

Jet lag? Loud hotel? Crazy schedules? It’ll help with all travel woes.