Americans Eat A Lot More Salad Than You'd Think

According to a survey conducted by the World Population Review, over 40% of American citizens are obese. However, research from YouGov, that was published in 2024, showed that the average diet consumed by Americans isn't all supersized fast food meals and ultraprocessed food products, but salads too. In the YouGov study, 40% of polled Americans said they eat salad at least a few times per week. A further 13% said they ate salad once a week. Only 3% of respondents reported that they never ate salad. Whether salad is thought of as a side dish, an appetizer, or a balanced entrée, the bottom line is that over 130 million Americans obviously appreciate it, according to the polled data. 

When it comes to preferences, 18% of polled Americans said they thought that iceberg lettuce tastes the best. This explains why 25% of them named iceberg lettuce as their chosen base when building a salad. Ironically enough, 38% of Americans, the highest percentage polled, also reported that they know iceberg lettuce holds the least nutritional value of all leafy greens. 

Recently, salad chains that serve customized salads have been hugely successful. At least 10 salad chains, including Cava and Chopt, are expected to open new locations across the United States in the coming years. Other salad chains like Sweetgreen are now shifting focus to the suburbs. Several casual and fast food chains have also added salads as entrées to their menus. For example, Culver's added a seasonal salad — that included chicken, strawberries, and grape tomatoes — to its menu. Given that it wasn't very long ago that Pizza Hut only used kale as a table decoration, this is huge progress. 

Of course, the proliferation of salad restaurants and ready-to-eat salads does pose its own challenges. Namely, the raw ingredients used to make these dishes are high-risk foods and it is fairly common for salad recalls, which affect millions of people, to be issued. However, these recalls should not obscure the fact that many Americans are making healthy choices each and every day.