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The Saltiest Menu Items You'll Find At Popular Restaurant Chains

Column: industry Tag: High Sodium Food,Restaurant Menus,Nutrition Facts,Sodium Intake Limits Published: 2024-08-23 16:20 Source: www.mashed.com Author: MELISSA CABEY

The Saltiest Menu Items You

Whether you dine at restaurants every so often or make it a habit to order delivery from your favorite chain multiple times a month, nothing beats a meal out. What you might not know is that so many of these meals are loaded with a huge amount of sodium — some with over 250% of the recommended daily value of 2,300 milligrams by the FDA. Even meals that seem "healthy" or those you wouldn't consider to be salty can have high amounts of hidden sodium.

Sodium is commonly added to restaurant food to help enhance the taste and preserve it for a longer time. A diet high in sodium can affect the body in many ways, with one of the first issues being high blood pressure. In turn, that snowballs into a slew of health issues, such as an increased risk of stroke or heart attack. It can also lead to other issues like kidney disease, osteoporosis, and stomach cancer.

When choosing which meals to include in this article, we narrowed down our search to some of the most popular and well-known chain restaurants around the country. From there, we scanned the nutrition menus on each restaurant's website for the highest amounts of sodium that we could find. You can read more about our process in the methodology slide at the end of the article. With many high-sodium options to choose from, we narrowed it down to this list.

The Classic Combo - Applebee's

Applebee's is many people's favorite chain restaurant. It can be found at every corner of the country, with over 1,650 locations worldwide. People love Applebee's because of the affordable prices, delicious drinks, and great food that simply hits the spot. One of the most popular items on the menu is The Classic Combo (it's a classic for a reason), which includes chicken wings, tortilla chips, quesadillas, mozzarella sticks, and celery. The food is accompanied by spinach and artichoke dip, marinara sauce, and salsa. Many of these items, like the cheese in the mozzarella sticks, quesadilla, and artichoke dip, naturally contain sodium. Other items are seasoned with sodium-heavy ingredients for flavor, like the chips and chicken wings.

Although this meal is objectively salty, you may still be shocked by the amount of sodium it contains. A whopping 5,840 milligrams of sodium are packed into the dish, which is 254% of the FDA's sodium intake recommendation. This number doesn't include any extra sauces or dips, like ranch or hot sauce. Having that much sodium in one sitting will cause bloating, extreme thirstiness, and a spike in blood pressure. If you're set on getting The Classic Combo, we recommend at least splitting it with a friend.

Nashville Hot Crispy Crispers - Chili's

Chili's Grill and Bar is yet another affordable, popular restaurant chain that is found in all 50 states. Along with classic American-style food, Chili's is also known for its Tex-Mex menu options. Whether you're in the mood for a burger, wings, quesadillas, or fajitas, Chili's usually has something to satisfy you.

Chili's Nashville Hot Crispy Crispers are the restaurant's version of chicken tenders smothered with a hot sauce. A six-count of these tenders packs in 6,520 milligrams of sodium. That number is incredibly high — especially if you compare it to the 2,300 milligrams the FDA recommends capping your daily intake at.

What's even more jarring is that this sodium count doesn't include any sides or dipping sauces. Most people dip their spicy tenders into ranch sauce, which adds 290 milligrams to the count. Fries are a must when you eat chicken tenders, and an order of those will add 660 milligrams of sodium. In total, your entire meal will amount to 7,470 milligrams of sodium. That's over three times the FDA recommended daily sodium intake.

Country Fried Sirloin - Texas Roadhouse

Texas Roadhouse has been serving good old Southern cooking since 1993. It's the perfect place to go when you need homestyle food — you'll be greeted with the iconic rolls and the wafting smell of butter and cinnamon, making your mouth start to water for a deliciously cooked steak.

The Country Fried Sirloin is a piece of sirloin (never frozen) that is breaded and fried. It's incredibly crispy, almost resembling a giant chicken tender, and it gets smothered in a generous pour of cream gravy. In total, this meal has 2,220 milligrams of sodium. The meal automatically comes with two sides as well, which aren't taken into account in the nutrition facts.

There aren't many sides that you can choose that won't add plenty more sodium to this meal. The best option is applesauce, which has 15 milligrams of sodium. From there, the numbers rise. The ever-popular baked potato has 1,950 milligrams, while mac and cheese is more modest with 450 milligrams. Even "healthier sides" like green beans have a high amount of sodium, coming in at 1,070 milligrams. Overall, having the country fried sirloin with two sides will most likely clock in at over 3,000 milligrams of sodium.

Bairdi Crab with Roasted Garlic Butter - Red Lobster

When you're craving a good seafood meal, Red Lobster can be a dependable chain to satisfy that itch. You can also feel fairly confident about the quality of the food, as the company is very transparent about where it sources its seafood. Now, eating good quality seafood doesn't necessarily mean your meal will be healthy. Many people believe that opting for a seafood dish is one of the healthier choices you can make at a restaurant, but that's not always the case.

The Bairdi Crab with Roasted Garlic Butter at Red Lobster is actually incredibly high in calories (mostly from fat) and equally high in sodium. The dish is pretty simple, and consists of a pound of crab legs, potatoes, and garlic butter sauce. However, the meal contains 4,950 milligrams of sodium. Crab naturally has sodium, which paired with the way Red Lobster prepares the dish really pushes the sodium count over the edge. Although Red Lobster doesn't share it's recipe for the garlic butter sauce, we can infer that there must be salt and other seasonings that contribute to the high sodium count of the dish. The potatoes are also likely to be thoroughly seasoned with salt.

Spaghetti and Meatballs - The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory boasts over 250 menu items, offering tons of options to choose from that vary from healthy(ish) to completely unhealthy. The restaurant makes its food from scratch, which is definitely a plus. However, just like many other establishments, The Cheesecake Factory's food is still full of added sodium that can wreak havoc on your health.

When most people eat a pasta dish, they tend to think the "unhealthy" part of the meal is the high amount of carbohydrates. For the Spaghetti and Meatballs at The Cheesecake Factory, however, the carbohydrates will be the least of your worries. This decadent dish of homemade beef and Italian sausage meatballs topped with tomato sauce has 4,030 milligrams of sodium.

The sodium count most likely comes from the sauce. Tomato sauce in general tends to have higher amounts of sodium, averaging about 320 milligrams per quarter cup. Most big bowls of pasta have way more sauce than that. Meat tends to be seasoned with salt as well, so the meatballs bring even more sodium to the party.

New York Strip Steak N Eggs - Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel is the pinnacle of homestyle food. It's a great place to stop on a road trip, especially if you're traveling up the East Coast. You'll be greeted with a cozy atmosphere, quirky merchandise store, and comforting food that'll keep you from getting homesick.

When visiting Cracker Barrel, it's hard to choose between ordering one of the delicious breakfast items or going for a savory lunch or dinner meal. You can always opt for both and get the New York Strip N Eggs. This meal, of course, comes with a juicy New York strip, two eggs (cooked however you like), and your choice of a side. The free side options include hash brown casserole, fried apples, or coarse ground grits.

In this meal, you're looking at a solid 5,050 milligrams of sodium. That is about 220% of the FDA's recommended limit for daily sodium intake. This count also doesn't include the sides, which could potentially add around 350 milligrams if you choose the hash browns or grits. The best option is to choose the fried apples as your side, which will only nudge up the sodium count by 45 milligrams.

Loaded Waffle Fries - Friendly's

Friendly's is an East Coast delicacy that draws in families due to its iconic kids menu and arguably the best ice cream sundaes and milkshakes (aka Fribbles) coming out of any chain restaurant. It first opened as a full-menu establishment in the '30s and has been popular ever since.

The menu is reminiscent of an old diner with a great selection of classic American food. One of the appetizers is a plate of loaded waffle fries slathered in a melted cheddar cheese sauce, sprinkled with pieces of bacon, and topped with sour cream. Anyone can glance at this dish and know it's not the peak of health, mainly because of the fat that comes from every single ingredient on the plate.

However, the high fat content isn't all you need to worry about with the loaded waffle fries. The dish contains 3,800 milligrams of sodium in one plate. Compared to the FDA's daily sodium recommendation, that is 165% of the daily value. Since the waffle fries are an appetizer, it's also likely that you're going to eat an entree. When choosing what else to order, you should definitely be mindful of the sodium content.

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich - Hooters

Sometimes you need classic bar food, and Hooters is the perfect place for that. With delicious appetizers, wings, burgers, sandwiches, and more, many of the menu items are satisfying but unfortunately filled with tons of sodium. If you want to opt for a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, there are two kinds you can choose from. You could go for the classic beef version or you could choose a "healthier" option with chicken instead. What's interesting, however, is that the chicken doesn't exactly end up being the better option.

Although the chicken has around 20 grams of fat less and 20 grams of protein more than the beef, the sodium counts are drastically different. The beef cheesesteak is actually a better option, with 1,590 milligrams of sodium. The chicken cheesesteak, on the other hand, has almost three times that amount — with 4,340 milligrams of sodium. It's not clear why the two sandwiches have such a stark difference in sodium content, since the only difference is the type of meat being used.

Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Strips & Fries with BBQ Sauce - IHOP

IHOP is the home of $5 all you can eat pancakes, mouthwatering breakfast combos, zany pancake flavors, and American-style lunches and dinners. It's a great place to go if you're looking for an affordable meal, as it tends to have many deals throughout the week. The food is deliciously crave-able, hence why there are over 1,750 locations throughout the country.

If you are at IHOP and aren't opting for sweet breakfast items, you'll want to watch out for the sodium count in your selection. One of the most classic meals you can get at almost any chain restaurant is chicken tenders and fries. IHOP makes them with a buttermilk batter, leading to incredibly crispy results. However, for the tenders, french fries, and barbecue sauce, you're looking at 4,540 milligrams of sodium in total for the entire meal. That is 197% of the FDA's daily recommended value. Make sure you're mindful of ordering any extra sauce, because that will amp up the sodium count even further.

Chicken & Broccoli Cheese Tortelloni - TGI Fridays

TGI Fridays has some great meals that can cover any type of craving. Famous for its loaded potato skins and boneless chicken bites (which you can buy at grocery stores in the freezer section), people go crazy over TGI Fridays. Along with your average bar food, the TGI Fridays menu also offers delicious entrees and pasta dishes.

The Chicken and Broccoli Cheese Tortelloni might not strike you as being loaded with sodium — but think again. This pasta dish has 4,970 milligrams of sodium in it, which is 216% percent of the FDA's daily value. With this meal, you're already ingesting over double your daily intake for sodium, and that's not counting the other meals you've eaten in the day. The sodium count in the tortelloni comes from a mixture of the naturally high amounts of sodium contained in most cheeses plus the excess salt added to the broccoli and chicken when the dish is being prepared.

Lo Mein Noodles - P.F. Chang's

P.F. Chang's is among the most popular Asian style chain restaurants in the country, with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai influences among others. People often associate Asian cuisine with high amounts of sodium, and that's probably due to the fact that soy sauce is used in many dishes. Soy sauce has around 880 milligrams of sodium per tablespoon, and when you think of an entire dish, chances are there's probably more than that.

Now, compared to a lot of the other chain restaurants we've looked at, P.F. Chang's sodium counts aren't as high as we anticipated. The menu item with the highest sodium count is the Signature Lo Mein Noodles with 2,280 milligrams. These lo mein noodles are made with wheat flour and eggs, various vegetables, and vegetarian dark sauce, which is made from a mixture of broth and soy sauce. The sodium in this dish mostly comes from the sauce, however we don't doubt that extra salt was added to season the vegetables as well.

Although soy sauce is readily available in the middle of the table at P.F. Chang's, it's important to remember that each pour will add tons of sodium to your meal. When you're eating a meal that's already close to the FDA's recommended daily sodium intake, like the Signature Lo Mein Noodles, it might be best to lay off any extra soy sauce.

Classic Buffalo Chicken Wings - Bahama Breeze

If you haven't been to Bahama Breeze, you're missing out. It is a Caribbean style chain restaurant with unique dishes and delicious drinks. Eating here makes you feel like you are away on a tropical vacation, and many locations even have live music. The menu includes delicious island-inspired appetizers, plenty of seafood, salads, sandwiches, and more. When assessing the menu's nutritional information, the classic buffalo chicken wings stuck out like a sore thumb with the high sodium content. The appetizer portion, which has eight wings, packs in 4,640 milligrams.

It looks like the sodium is mainly coming from the buffalo sauce itself, because the spicy habanero classic chicken wings only have 1,830 milligrams of sodium. That's an extremely large difference in sodium content, and the only distinction between the two items is the sauce. If you are craving wings, we definitely recommend choosing the spicy habanero sauce to avoid consuming so much sodium and weighing down your health.

Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo - Olive Garden

Olive Garden is the leader of chain restaurant pasta, serving it along with unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks for a carb-loaded treat. Of course, as suspected, the sodium content can be quite high. Before you even start your actual meal and you're chowing down on breadsticks, it's worth noting that each breadstick has 460 milligrams of sodium. Now, if you're anything like us, you definitely aren't just having one breadstick.

Another menu item to watch out for is the Chicken Tortelloni Alfredo. This pasta dish is filled with asiago cheese, Alfredo sauce, breadcrumbs, and chicken, packing in 3,720 milligrams of sodium. If you add at least one breadstick to that, you're looking at a total of 4,180 milligrams for your meal.

Unfortunately, most of the pasta entrees at Olive Garden are loaded with sodium. If you want to choose a lower-sodium option, we'd recommend going for the Shrimp Scampi or Spaghetti with Marinara. Another option is to dine there for lunch, in which case you can get the lunch-sized portions, which will definitely lower your sodium intake simply by eating less.

Methodology

Nutrition facts are easily accessible on each restaurant's website, and some have the capability of organizing the values of the menu items from highest to lowest. When possible, we toggled the sodium count to be listed in that manner. For other restaurants, we scanned the entire menu to find the highest sodium numbers listed.

Our aim was to choose a wide variety of dishes from restaurant to restaurant, therefore some of these do not have the absolute highest count at their respective restaurant — but they are at least in the top three. We compared them against the FDA's daily recommended sodium limit of 2,300 milligrams and came to a percent value for each item.

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