Sodium
"Healthy" restaurant meals
Draft · dietitian review pending
What actually happens
Commonly 1,500–3,500 mg.
The fix
One safe order per restaurant, sauce on the side.
The numbers
- Sodium, typical "healthy" restaurant meal
- 1,500–3,500 mg
The salad with grilled chicken. The grain bowl. The "light" pasta. It has a little leaf next to it on the menu, so it must be fine.
It usually isn't. Restaurant meals that look healthy commonly carry 1,500 to 3,500 mg of sodium. Kitchens season for flavour, and the salt hides in the sauces, dressings, marinades and cheese. None of that shows up in the menu description.
I didn't give up eating out. I changed how I do it. For every place I go, I have one safe order, worked out once and memorised. Sauce or dressing always on the side, so I decide how much goes on. Then I stop reading the menu, because the menu is where the trouble starts.
It's less exciting than trying something new every time. It's also a lot less stressful, and I still get a night off from cooking.