The good thing about growing up in the American South is we learn early to love our vegetables. The bad thing is we learn to love them in the worst possible way. Our favorite veggie dishes include fried squash, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, asparagus or broccoli drenched in cheese, and anything swimming in butter. By the time we Southerners finish tinkering with our veggies, they have nearly as many calories as any of our signature desserts. And they taste just as decadent.

Once you’ve learned to love a mushy, butter-slathered veggie, it’s mighty tough to like it any other way. So when I’m trying to eat healthy, I have to fight the temptation to skip veggies altogether. One way I do that is by eating a lot of salads with light spray-mist dressings.

But just as I have to guard against butter and cheese contaminating my veggies, now I find I have to take extra precautions against winding up with unwanted bacteria in my salad.

According to a recent study by Consumer Reports, nearly 40 percent of the pre-washed and ready-made salads I purchase may be contaminated with things that can make me sick—which kind of defeats the purpose of eating all those salads.

Do you buy a lot of pre-washed greens and ready-made salads with all the fixings included? Then the experts recommend taking a couple of extra precautions. First, try not to buy anything, especially spinach, too close to its due date. Keep your greens and salads cold until they’re ready to be used. Then run cold water through the greens and lettuce before eating them, even if they’ve been “pre-washed.” These extra steps will make sure you enjoy nature’s goodness—and nothing else.