America's Healthiest Chain Restaurants: Sweetgreen

This is part two of a 10-part series highlighting the healthiest chain restaurants in America, along with the efforts they're making to promote healthy eating. We're defining a chain as any restaurant with more than 25 locations. Find part one here.

If you're thinking about visiting a chain restaurant for a grab-and-go lunch, you're most likely not thinking about picking up something nutritious. But that's all changing with the help of Sweetgreen, which serves healthy and delicious organic food sourced locally. Sustainability is the focus, from the food to the design, and menu items are prepared fresh, use in-season produce, and are sourced from reputable farmers. Salads and grain bowls are completely customizable. For all intents and purposes, if you're looking to eat healthily and cleanly, Sweetgreen is your new best friend, and with a $35 million round of funding recently closed, one might be opening near you sooner than you may think.

While you can choose from a wide selection of pre-designed salads and bowls, the menu allows you to customize your own from locally sourced (when in season) ingredients; options include organic quinoa and farro, shredded kale, arugula and broccoli leaf mix, raw beets, shredded cabbage, basil, chickpeas, roasted sweet potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, local feta, parmesan crisp, citrus shrimp, organic white cheddar, house-made hummus, baked falafel... the possibilities are essentially limitless.