Salad bar -- neither salad nor bar -- discuss

Manhattan media insiders tell me that nobody actually reads the Sun, which is the only logical explanation for the bit of whimsy perpetrated there recently:

Whole Foods Market bills itself as a destination for organic and natural food, and the tactic seems to have worked, as a health-conscious crowd can often be seen at its prepared foods sections — and in particular, the salad bars. Armed with compostable containers, customers can be seen loading their trays with mixed greens and an array of cooked items such as tofu, stir-fry, and chicken.

While many prepared dishes at Whole Foods can be healthful, an analysis conducted by a laboratory on behalf of The New York Sun found that filling the containers can result in a single meal containing large percentages of the Food and Drug Administration's recommended daily allotment of calories, fat, and sodium.

Well, stop the fucking presses, smack me on the ass, and call me Wilford Brimley.

At Whole Foods, which charges $7.99 a pound for food at its salad bars, containers come in two sizes that can accommodate generous portions: The smaller holds 36 fluid ounces and the larger holds 54 fluid ounces. Competitors offer containers that come in a variety of sizes as well.
Health experts, physicians, and nutritionists said it is difficult for people to sample appropriate-size portions, which they defined as one-half cup, or four ounces, of one prepared food item.
"Visually, you'd want to fill the space," a cardiac surgeon known for making frequent appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Dr. Mehmet Oz, said.
"The average person who is going to a salad bar is overeating," a registered dietician who is a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, Keri Gans, said.

By my reckoning, this is three kinds of sad: 1) Actual health care professionals rolling out the "what you don't know about ____ can kill you" gambit favored by third-place local newscasts during sweeps months 2) That there is a cardiac surgeon who is famous for his appearances on Oprah, and 3) The chilling suspicion that there might actually be readers for whom this would represent useful service journalism.

For the suspicion in #3 to be true, the semantic slipperiness of the word "salad" would have to be beyond the grasp of the average Whole Foods shopper. To review: "salad," as in "I'll just have a salad," refers usually to a lettuce-based preparation of leafy green vegetables, as such, potentially healthy.* "Salad," however, can also refer to just about any refrigerated and prepared food, such as egg salad. A "Salad Bar" usually contains some of each kind of salad item. One could a) make a salad of baby spinach and cherry tomatoes with a light splash of vinaigrette, or b) fix yourself a pail of sausage gravy, and call it a salad. As such,  the salad bar represents a series of choices, sort of like eating in general. If your idea of a light meal includes a pound of Southern Sweet Potato Salad,* not even Oprah's cardiologist can save you. 

*And the "vegan chicken delight" would delight whom, exactly? Lovers of conundrums? Those who make croutons out of the square root of -1?