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The Pros: The food is delicious, but that fact makes me a little sad honestly. Read on. The Cons: Salt, salt salt. Fat where there doesn't need to be fat...16 points for a simple sandwich... The Skinny: One would think that there would be a fair amount of skinny at Panera Bread. It's soups and sandwiches essentially, so there's a lot of hope that I'd find something healthy on the menu. But further inspection sends my point-counting brain into overload and that doesn't even take into account the amount of salt in everything. So let's take a look at a sample. Turkey sandwich seems like safe choice. So I check it out and find...
Nutrition Facts - Smoked Turkey Breast Sandwich on Artisan Country | % Daily Value* | | Total Fat 15g | 23% | | Saturated Fat 2.5g | 13% | | Trans Fat 0g | | | Cholesterol 65mg | 22% | | Sodium 2470mg | 103% | | Total Carbohydrate 77g | 26% | | Dietary Fiber 5g | 20% | | Sugars 6g | | | Protein 34g | | Now this choice does have mayo on it, but even taking the mayo off we're looking at a lot of fat and a staggering amount of sodium for a turkey sandwich. As served, this is a 12 point sandwich! The second ingredient on this sandwich is salt. Carb watchers have reason to be fairly horrified at the 77 g there as well. The Medeteranian Veggie Sandwich is the same number of calories and only 2 g of fat less. Soup anyone? Let's find a low-fat soup: | % Daily Value* | | Total Fat 1g | 2% | | Saturated Fat 0g | 0% | | Trans Fat 0g | | | Cholesterol 0mg | 0% | | Sodium 820mg | 34% | | Total Carbohydrate 31g | 10% | | Dietary Fiber 11g | 44% | | Sugars 2g | | | Protein 9g | |
So we have the fat thing under control, and we're good in terms of points here with only 160 calories but why all the salt? This is clearly a much better choice Weight Watcher choice coming in at only two points, but mind your salt for the rest of the day if you choose this little number. Surely a salad will be better...
| % Daily Value* | | Total Fat 19g | 29% | | Saturated Fat 3g | 15% | | Trans Fat 0g | | | Cholesterol 70mg | 23% | | Sodium 1080mg | 45% | | Total Carbohydrate 33g | 11% | | Dietary Fiber 5g | 20% | | Sugars 7g | | | Protein 32g |
Um...we'd almost do better with the sandwich. How do you pack this much salt into a salad? It's a chicken breast salad, why throw in all that fat? Personally, I'm not up for spending 9 points on a salad no matter how big it is. The Stats: Normally I'd send you to the nutrtion section of their website here, but Panera does a good job of buring the stats in their website. To see the good and the bad of your favorites, go to the menu , then keep clicking until you get to the individual item you're curious about to get to the nutrtional values page. Sadly, I'm not sure I can eat at Panera anymore. |
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