At restaurants, even healthy options often are loaded with sodium
In this March 12, 2015 photo a line forms at the entrance to The Little Beet during lunchtime at the restaurant in New York. For years, healthy chains have sputtered and flopped but The Little Beet chef Franklin Becker, who’s opening seven more restaurants in the New York area this year, says the demand is growing. “That’s what people want to eat. They want honest foods now.” (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
Faced with shifting consumer demand, more restaurants are including healthy options on their menus. However, the American Heart Association says many lower-fat, lower-calorie choices are still loaded with sodium.
Too much sodium, or salt, can put someone on the fast track for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death worldwide.
Larissa Bedrick is an American Heart Association spokeswoman. She says, for a nation that eats one of every three meals at a restaurant, healthier choices still may include a massive dose of salt.
“A lot of those options that we think of as being healthy, sandwiches and soups, do pack a lot of sodium even though they may be lower in fat or calories,” Bedrick says.
The association recommends 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, which Bedrick says can be a difficult goal to achieve. Most Americans consume twice that amount.
In this Thursday, June 1, 2017, photo, Silvia Ruiz prepares a specialty sandwich at a McDonald’s restaurant in Chicago. The company that helped define fast food is making supersized efforts to reverse its fading popularity and catch up to a landscape that has evolved around it. McDonald’s is still trying to shake its image for serving junk food and has made a high-profile pledge to offer healthier options. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
It isn’t just the steak and fries, either. Bedrick says breads and soups can have a surprising amount of salt in them. Chicken breast, often viewed as one of the healthiest options, also might have more sodium than expected, since some companies inject sodium into the chicken for flavor and as a preservative.
Even salad isn’t off the hook. “Salads can be a sneaky source of sodium because of the salad dressing,” she says.
Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association spokeswoman Melissa Bova says the restaurant industry has been working to reduce sodium levels.
Restaurants are also providing nutrition info on menus, a change that comes ahead of a Food and Drug Administration requirement expected to be enforced in early 2018.
Under the FDA regulation, any restaurant with 20 or more locations will have to provide nutritional information.
Bova says that change is likely to lead smaller restaurant chains to provide the info as well, as consumers come to expect it.
Still, Bedrick says, people are going to have to become accustomed to eating healthier foods if restaurants are expected to cut sodium levels.
She says those dining out should keep tabs on their sodium intake and seek out nutrition info before getting that soup or salad.
