Dietician shows two 'identical' salads side-by-side but one has double the calories

Hidden calories can sabotage your diet

Hidden calories in salads can be hard to spot (Instagram)

We all know salads are supposed to be healthy - but just how easy is it to differentiate between an unhealthy salad and a healthy one?

With the additions of toppings like grains, cheese, and dressing, a salad can go from a diet meal to a full-blown diet disaster - and one dietician showed just how hard it can be to tell the difference.

Australian dietician Paula Norris recently uploaded a picture of two seemingly identical salads to her Instagram.

While both looked delicious, one salad contained just 535 calories, while the other contained 995 calories.

According to Norris, this is because “calorie-heavy dressings, too much grain and not enough veg can result in a ‘salad’ with calories closer to that of a risotto.”

Norris then breaks down the salad discrepancies and how the calories sneak into the one on the left.

In the salad on the left, Norris included one cup of cooked pearl barley, 70g halloumi cheese, 1/3 of a courgette, two florets of broccoli, some pepper, 50g of aubergine, three cherry tomatoes, 200g of poached chicken, 1/2 cup herbs, and dressing comprised of two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.​

Compared to the ingredients in the other salad, it is easy to see where all those extra calories come from.

The salad on the right contains ½ cup of cooked pearl barley, 35g of halloumi cheese, 2/3 of a courgette, five florets of broccoli, ½ pepper, 100g of aubergine, five cherry tomatoes, 100g of poached chicken, 1/2 cup of herbs, and dressing made of two teaspoons of balsamic vinegar and two teaspoons of seeded mustard.

However, it is not so easy to see the differences when the salads are laid side-by-side - as Norris does with her other posts of food.

According to Norris, her posts are not to encourage calorie-counting, but to “demonstrate the impact that ingredient manipulation can have on the overall calories in a meal.”

When you are trying to stick to a diet and eat healthily, it is important to know how hidden calories can sabotage you.