Panera Bread Restaurants are getting rid of 50 % of their menu.. in April...

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I'm on a sodium restricted diet, and I can tell you that pretty much ALL restaurant food is loaded with sodium.

When I was traveling for business almost half the year, I also discovered that even the "healthy options" on restaurant menus were loaded with calories, fat and sodium.

CD
They are indeed. People order salads, for example, because they think they're doing themselves a favor. But they're really not.
 
Believe it or not, their tomato soup contains 15 grams of fat (8g saturated) and 760mg of sodium.

The broccoli cheddar is even worse with 16 grams of fat (11g saturated) and 1060mg of sodium.

The French onion soup has 1290mg of sodium.

Granted, soup alone is full of sodium. But I wouldn't expect a bowl of tomato soup to have 8 grams of saturated fat.
It's a *creamy* tomato soup. Cream contains saturated fat.
 
30+ ingredients in the Tomato Soup
Vegetarian Creamy Tomato Soup (Tomatoes [Tomatoes, Tomato Puree, Salt, Citric Acid], Water, Tomato Puree (Vine-Ripened Tomatoes, Citric Acid), Whipping Cream [Cream, Milk], Onions, Butter [Pasteurized Cream, Salt], Seasoning [Sugar, Salt, Spices {Black Pepper, Celery Seed, Oregano, White Pepper, Red Pepper}, Canola Oil], Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Corn Starch, Garlic Puree [Garlic, Water]), Sea Salt And Black Pepper Croutons (Enriched Flour [Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Yeast, Sugar, Salt, Sunflower Oil, Microbial Enzymes), Canola And/Or Sunflower Oil (With Rosemary Extract And Ascorbic Acid [To Preserve Freshness]), Seasoning (Sea Salt, Black Pepper)

We've found plain clean food more available at chinese restaurants, steamed veggies, plain brown rice, and Mexican restaurants with whole black beans, plain rice, diced tomatoes, peppers.
Some of us like flavors in our food. There's nothing wrong with putting seasonings, dairy, added vitamins and oils, which carry flavor as well as fat-soluble vitamins, into food. I can't think of anything more boring to eat than steamed vegetables and plain brown rice.
 
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I'm on a sodium restricted diet, and I can tell you that pretty much ALL restaurant food is loaded with sodium.

When I was traveling for business almost half the year, I also discovered that even the "healthy options" on restaurant menus were loaded with calories, fat and sodium.

CD
At a good restaurant that wasn't a chain or something, you should be able to ask them to prepare something without the seasoning.
 
At a good restaurant that wasn't a chain or something, you should be able to ask them to prepare something without the seasoning.

I'm able to eat food with salt, but some restaurants blow through my entire daily allowance in one meal. I'd be happy if I could just get them to go easy on the salt. But restaurants, especially chain restaurants, don't allow that kind of option.

I have found that since reducing my salt intake, some restaurant foods now taste too salty. It seems we build a tolerance for salt. It's like a drug... the more you use, the more you want.

BTW GG, my home cooked food is full of good flavor, but I've learned to use herbs and spices to replace a lot of the salt I used to use. I still use salt, but just a lot less than I used to.

CD
 
I'm able to eat food with salt, but some restaurants blow through my entire daily allowance in one meal. I'd be happy if I could just get them to go easy on the salt. But restaurants, especially chain restaurants, don't allow that kind of option.

I have found that since reducing my salt intake, some restaurant foods now taste too salty. It seems we build a tolerance for salt. It's like a drug... the more you use, the more you want.

BTW GG, my home cooked food is full of good flavor, but I've learned to use herbs and spices to replace a lot of the salt I used to use. I still use salt, but just a lot less than I used to.

CD
I eat a lot of salt but I do know that if you lay off the salt for a while your taste buds adjust. I guess the problem is that a lot of the ingredients have salt in them.
 
I eat a lot of salt but I do know that if you lay off the salt for a while your taste buds adjust. I guess the problem is that a lot of the ingredients have salt in them.

When I first had to change my sodium intake, I missed the salt. But, maybe six months later, I found myself in a restaurant thinking my meal was too salty.

BTW, my issue with sodium is not the normal blood pressure thing. My kidneys don't process salt/sodium as well as they should anymore, so if I don't go easy with the salt, I retain water -- my legs and ankles swell up like the Michelin Man. It's quite unpleasant. I don't have to take any kind of medication on a regular basis. I just have to keep my normal daily sodium intake down. I can have cheat meals without any consequences. I just have to watch my daily intake.

There are a surprising number of lower sodium, lightly salted and no salt added products on the market, once you start looking for them.

CD
 
When I first had to change my sodium intake, I missed the salt. But, maybe six months later, I found myself in a restaurant thinking my meal was too salty.

BTW, my issue with sodium is not the normal blood pressure thing. My kidneys don't process salt/sodium as well as they should anymore, so if I don't go easy with the salt, I retain water -- my legs and ankles swell up like the Michelin Man. It's quite unpleasant. I don't have to take any kind of medication on a regular basis. I just have to keep my normal daily sodium intake down. I can have cheat meals without any consequences. I just have to watch my daily intake.

There are a surprising number of lower sodium, lightly salted and no salt added products on the market, once you start looking for them.

CD
I have the same issue. Although I don't really consider it to be an issue, since I don't need the extra sodium anyway. But as I've gotten older, my taste buds just don't 'accept' the overly salty foods anymore.

One of my guilty pleasures, that I allow myself to have once a week on Sunday, is potato chips. I love Lay's. I started buying the lightly salted ones several months ago. And since I've gotten used to those, the regular Lay's are way too salty for me now.
 
I gave up using sodium salt last June. It took a few months using nu-salt (a potassium salt), the adjustment was difficult. Now though I enjoy the nu-salt and everything tastes 'normal' again.
Now we don't use sodium salt in cooking or at the table.
The nu-salt is not the same taste as sodium salt but pleasant enough. Given that we don't eat seaweed (we should but don't), or anything with iodine in it and now no iodized salt, we added a very small 75 mcg iodine kelp supplement.
 
I gave up using sodium salt last June. It took a few months using nu-salt (a potassium salt), the adjustment was difficult. Now though I enjoy the nu-salt and everything tastes 'normal' again.
Now we don't use sodium salt in cooking or at the table.
The nu-salt is not the same taste as sodium salt but pleasant enough. Given that we don't eat seaweed (we should but don't), or anything with iodine in it and now no iodized salt, we added a very small 75 mcg iodine kelp supplement.
I've tried salt substitutes and I can't do it. It just tastes weird to me.

I try not to use too much salt while cooking, although I definitely have to salt my pasta water. "Make it taste like the ocean" I keep hearing Anne Burrell say (I'm a Worst Cooks fan). Also, I'll salt fish and chicken before I cook it and I love the taste of flaked sea salt. It just hits differently than your standard table salt.
 
@Linda0818 Prior to cutting out all sodium salt I stopped cooking with it in anything and we only added it when we served ourselves. At first the nu-salt was really unpleasant to my taste. (weird is right) No one was more surprised than myself when I started liking it a few months later but I think my taste buds had been 'deadened'? by the salt. I couldn't taste things because salt is so strong it messes up the taste buds.
*I used to be a fan of Lay's potato chips, um, 5 years ago now...loved them!
 
When I first had to change my sodium intake, I missed the salt. But, maybe six months later, I found myself in a restaurant thinking my meal was too salty.

BTW, my issue with sodium is not the normal blood pressure thing. My kidneys don't process salt/sodium as well as they should anymore, so if I don't go easy with the salt, I retain water -- my legs and ankles swell up like the Michelin Man. It's quite unpleasant. I don't have to take any kind of medication on a regular basis. I just have to keep my normal daily sodium intake down. I can have cheat meals without any consequences. I just have to watch my daily intake.

There are a surprising number of lower sodium, lightly salted and no salt added products on the market, once you start looking for them.

CD
Maybe once a year I have a day when everything tastes so salty that I can't eat it, but I think it's some kind of a taste anomaly.
 
I used to buy Panera bread regularly because it was located in the same parking lot as a full grocery store I would shop weekly/biweekly. We liked a number of their bakery pieces (bear claws!) and also the bread. Then about four years ago or so, during an exceedingly cold winter, I noticed that the bread was heavier than usual, like it hadn't risen properly. I mentioned this to the clerk at the counter. She said "that's because we don't make it here anymore". Upon further questioning, she explained that the bread was shipped to them daily, frozen, and they would defrost and finish baking at each location every day. That's when I went down the basement and brought up my old bread machine...

I have eaten there a few times, but not for a long time. I found the food average quality and not worth the price. I did, however, love their creamy chicken and wild rice soup - which I now copycat at a level that makes both Himself and I happy.

**************************

I gave up using salt in my late teens for "lady reasons". Decades went by with me using little to no salt. Not much for packaged foods or fast food, so I wasn't getting much in the way of sodium that way either. I liked my two (13 ounce) cups of tea early in my day, followed by two (12 ounce) cups of coffee. Then when I would start making supper, I would drink hot tea (another cup or two) or fruited ice water (around 20-30 ounces total) depending on the weather. Maybe have another cup of tea after supper. Add in random water sips during the day and some wine at night and I was consuming close to 100 ounces a day.

Decades later I had to go to a nephrologist because - I had flushed sodium from my blood and dropped below the minimum blood serum sodium level that is critical for balance, memory, and to prevent dementia. It was a shock to my system when he said "you have to use more salt", seeing as how I was on blood pressure meds. :LOL: Oddly enough, even with all kinds of salt, my BP has never gone up.
 

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