Cucumber, cantaloupe, tomatoes, carrots - they're all good for you, sure. But they're not so good for your wallet. The New York Times comparison-shopped to show you how you're getting a bad deal when you load up on certain weighty items at salad bars even though they cost less per ounce than some of the lighter items do. Your best bang for the buck? Gorgonzola crumbles, cranberries, almonds- all things that tend to cost a pretty penny in the store.
Link -via FlavorWire
People tend to forget that when people abuse food bars, they don't make money, and then it goes away or becomes prohibitively expensive. I've seen it happen several times - especially at schools, where students follow the crowd in trying to exploit it for all it's worth, then bitch when it goes away the next year.
Just eat what you want and be happy that it's still probably cheaper and more to your liking than if someone prepared it for you.
I do remember being very young and poor and going into the salad bar which had one bowl of salad for $1.50. We would put all the heavy stuff in the bowl, then create a second bowl by sticking carrot and celery sticks into the rim of the heavy stuff making a "upper bowl" for the greens.