Too much Salt

Posted by Mindy on May 19th, 2009 at 10:58am

The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report entitled “Heart Attack Entrees and Side Orders of Stroke,” which details the sodium content of popular menu items at national chain restaurants. As you can tell from the report’s title, the results are astounding. Dietary guidelines recommend 2,300 mg of sodium per day and closer to 1,500 mg if you are trying to control your blood pressure. The CSPI looked at 17 chain restaurants and out of 102 meals, 85 had more than a day’s worth of sodium. Some even had four days worth! Here are a few of the worst offenders:

• Olive Garden’s Chicken Parmigiana with Breadstick, Garden Salad and Raspberry Lemonade – 5,735 mg of sodium
• Chili’s Buffalo Chicken Fajitas (with tortillas and condiments) and a Dr. Pepper – 6,916 mg of sodium
• Red Lobster’s Admirals Feast with Caesar Salad, Creamy Lobster Topped Mashed Potatoes, Cheddar Bay Biscuit and a Lemonade – 7,106 mg of sodium

Smaller portioned kid’s meals showed equally shocking results:

• KFC Popcorn Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese, Teddy Grahams and 2% milk – 2,005 mg of sodium
• Olive Garden Chicken Fingers, Fries and Raspberry Lemonade – 1,835 mg of sodium
• Red Lobster Chicken Fingers, Biscuit, Fries and Raspberry Lemonade – 2,430 mg of sodium

Read the full report and get the skinny on many more popular options here.

Tags: CSPI, healthy eating, nutrition, sodium

Under Diet Studies+ healthy eating+ nutrition Tags: CSPI, healthy eating, nutrition, sodium