As you sit down for lunch, you've already decided it's going to be a healthy one. You’re thinking of ordering a salad, but the Cobb you have your eye on is well over 1,000 calories.

You're left wondering: Are salads healthy or what? And won’t I just be hungry again later?

The reality is that there's always a way to turn a healthy food option into an unhealthy one. Salads are no exception.

With lettuce and other veggies as the foundation, a salad certainly has the potential to be healthy — especially since the CDC says that only 1 in 10 adults eats enough vegetables every day. But, it needs to be built with healthy choices in mind.

Rather than trying to memorize the long list of things you probably shouldn't put in your salad, focus on the key components that make a salad not just healthy, but filling.