On the heels of CSPI’s look at sodium-laden restaurant meals, the guys at Eat This, Not That have compiled a list called 20 Foods Your Cardiologist Won’t Eat. I suppose it depends on the cardiologist — I’ve known doctors and nurses who smoke — but they’ll tell us not to ingest them, and with good reason.
First, let’s remember that the daily maximum recommended sodium for adults is 2300 mg. That’s one teaspoon of salt. One teaspoon. The average American takes in 3300 mg each day, about three-fourths of it coming from processed and restaurant foods. It affects blood pressure and raises the risk of stroke and heart attacks. And as this list shows, the worst offenders aren’t always obvious.
America’s saltiest “healthy” meal has almost a day and half’s worth of sodium, nearly half a day of calories and a lotta, lotta fat. It’s Olive Garden’s Grilled Shrimp Caprese with 3,490 mg sodium, 900 calories and 41 fat grams. The suggested alternative is the chain’s Herb Grilled Salmon with 760 mg sodium, 510 calories and 26 g fat.
The saltiest soup is a surpise. It’s the large serving of Au Bon Pain’s Low-Fat French Onion Soup. How salty can soup be, you might wonder? This one’s as salty as 10 bags of Lay’s potato chips, 1,750 mg sodium. It has only 170 calories, so that’s 10 mg of sodium per calorie. A medium portion of Au Bon Pain’s Low-Fat, Low-Sodium Mediterranean Pepper Soup has the same calories but only 590 mg of sodium.
And a soup bowl has the dubious honor of being the Saltiest Food in America. It’s P.F. Chang’s Hot and Sour Soup Bowl with (brace yourself) 6,878 mg sodium. That’s almost triple the daily amount needed and is the sodium equivalent of 208 saltine crackers. To quote Eat This, Not That:
How can one bowl of soup come with so much sodium? P.F. Chang’s is one of the worst restaurants when it comes to sodium (second to Chili’s), so your best bet is to avoid the soups altogether. Wonton, Egg Drop, and Hot and Sour all come loaded with thousands of miligrams of it. And since even the downsized cups come with over 1,000 mg of sodium, a better choice for a heart-healthy side is to stick to the vegetables or the steamed brown rice.
They recommend instead the Small Spinach Stir-Fried with Garlic at 448 mg sodium and 90 calories.
Do follow the above link for the full list of 20 and if you missed the CSPI story, I called it What’s on the Menu? Sodium.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Gee whiz! I know Doctors and Nurses who smoke, too. Every now and then I see one of those “Look how far we’ve come” emails which trot out the old cigarette ad: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other brand!”
Thanks for the reminder. I was actually told to eat more salty food when I’m stressed by a Dr. —but not much. A few salty almonds go a long way. I have low blood pressure anyway.
I like that the site has alternatives for the same restaurant. Goodness, the P.F. Chang’s info. is scary. I kind of like to eat there. I think…
Almonds and cashews are wonderful, imo! (I think some doctors need plaques that read, “Do I say, not as I do…”)
I’ve never eaten at PF Chang’s and I’m not even sure I’ve seen one. I know it’s a popular chain but I tend to avoid chains. I have eaten at Chili’s a few times and once even ordered the Cajun chicken pasta, which turned up on the list as the saltiest pasta! A friend had raved about it, we both got it that night, and I thought it was delicious but salty. I had it boxed up to bring home, never dreaming how salty it really was.
After all this, I don’t think I’ll ever set foot in Chili’s again or Chang’s for the first time if I notice one.