Can I Eat Low Sodium at Five Guys
It’s a real good thing these guys are named Five Guys, as they are one of my all time top five burger spots! It would be awkward if they were called Six Guys. This is also the favorite place for my kids to choose when we have the chance to go out. So it also would be devastating if we had to stop going here because of no low sodium options. So I was super excited to see what we can eat and stay low sodium at Five Guys.
Customize Your Order For Low Sodium
Many restaurants will try to work with you when you have a custom order due to a medical or allergy based need. Restaurants that do not have a scratch kitchen (basically all chain restaurants these days) are limited. Sadly most of the food is all prepared at a warehouse before it is ever shipped to the location.
I was impressed that Five Guys sources local and has a scratch kitchen. In fact they take pride in it and have kept their menu limited to their best sellers in order to stay true to that goal. Potatoes are locally sourced and delivered fresh. They post the farm location and name of the days delivery up to the side of their menu boards.
To make your burger land inside your sodium requirements you will need to custom order. You can custom order french fries to get an unsalted batch since they drop the french fries to order, rather than just letting fries sit around. McDonald’s will do the same if you are willing to wait. Five Guys gets the kudos here for having fresh hand cut fries on location.
What We Can Eat And Stay Low Sodium At Five Guys
Let’s define what we are looking for. The USDA recommends a totally healthy person consume no more than 2300 mg of sodium per day. The American Heart Association (AHA) and the Mayo Clinic recommends no more than 1500 mg per day for anyone with: high blood pressure, is a woman, is a person of color, is over the age of 50, or who has a heart issue. So basically most of the US population qualifies for the 1500 mg limit. To that end we need to figure out a meal that runs 500-700 mg or approximately 1/3 of our daily limit. I used the Five Guys Nutrition Menu to figure this out.
Burger v. Hot Dog
A hamburger patty is only 50 mg each, and the hot dogs have 800 so a hamburger is the clear choice. Adding bacon (2 pcs.) to either would add 260 mg.
The Bun
Fresh baked each day, the bun has 330 mg. Five Guys will serve your burger wrapped in lettuce (3 mg) instead, so you can save that sodium buy going without a bun.
Toppings
A slice of cheese will run you 310 mg. so you could shave sodium here as well.
Green peppers are 1 mg.
Grilled mushrooms are 55 mg.
Jalapeno peppers are 0 mg.
Ketchup is 160 mg.
Mayonnaise is 70 mg.
Mustard is 55 mg.
Onions are 1 mg.
Pickles are 260 mg.
Relish is 85 mg.
Tomatoes are 3 mg.
French Fries
The little fries are 531 mg. They are large enough to be shared and you must order them unsalted for that amount is without salt added. ** UPDATE – CORRECTION** After speaking with their HQ, the 531 is for SALTED fries. Unsalted would be much less but they couldn’t say how much. They estimate there is 2 large potatoes worth of fries per order. According to Google it is 30 mg per large spud. So, make sure you order UNSALTED.
Bulk Peanuts
One of the features at Five Guys are the free salted bulk peanuts you can snack on. These are salted in shell, soaked in saltwater prior to roasting, so they should be skipped.
All in all, my order for a Little Hamburger, No Seasoning, No Bun, No Cheese, All the way , No Mayo, No Pickles is 459 mg which allows me a few mgs. to spend on unsalted fries hit with malt vinegar. Yum!
What is your favorite way to order Five Guys? Let me know in the comments below!
“The little fries are 531 mg. They are large enough to be shared and you must order them unsalted for that amount is without salt added.”
I don’t understand how fries could without salt could have 531 mg sodium. Am I reading it wrong?
They are pre-seasoned.
They are listed as is for 50 mg per patty, so if that is seasoned, it still works. The one near me makes new patties to order when I am there.
I think you misread… they are talking about the fries. How do they have that much sodium unsalted.
The fries are fried in Peanut oil. I wish they would switch to corn, but it is a chain-wide issue. the deep fried peanut oil adds the sodium.
I was wondering the same thing. If oil doesn’t have sodium, and a potato might have a little sodium naturally, there is no way a fresh cut potato fried could have that much sodium. I mean a whole potato should only have tops 30mg of sodium for a large potato, probably less than that I would imagine.
Sorry, I didn’t see the first comment about potatoes, I thought the comment referred to the beef patties. From all I can determine, since they use fresh cut potatoes and can do an unsalted batch, that it must be the sodium from the peanut oil. Also, their fries servings are VERY LARGE. A regular order feeds our whole family of 5. So some of the sodium is due to volume of fries.
**UPDATE** Please see above in the post, after speaking to 5 Guys HQ, the number for the 531 is for SALTED fries. Ordering them unsalted would be much less, but they wouldn’t commit to a number on the phone, They did estimate that one order of fries is about 2 large potatoes worth. Please make sure you order unsalted!
Thank you for checking and clearing up the confusion.
Hi. Love the info. My concern is always meat – especially beef. I am worried that the cooks don’t realize they are NOT supposed to add salt at the time of cooking to the patties, and potentially do it out of habit. That’s why I stay away from anything like this. I rarely go there (but would love to!) because of the potential salt on the meat. Thoughts? Comments?
If you don’t feel comfortable, it is perfectly ok to ask your server, manager, or chef, as to how the meat is prepared. You can explain that you have low sodium needs.
If they are a “scratch” kitchen, they are preparing your meat and cooking it there in their kitchen. You can ask that they cook it with no seasonings, or bring your own seasonings and ask them to use it to prepare the meat. You can ask that they scrape/clean the grill in the spot your meat will be prepared so that it doesn’t have a salt residue from other food.
If it is a chain restaurant kitchen (they get the food frozen and just basically reheat and serve)) like places like Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc. You can ask them not to add any more seasonings and to clean/scrape the grill, but most of the damage is already done.
It is safer to order beef than other meats since most chain restaurants can get fresh beef more locally than if it is shipped.
Bottom line, you have the power of your spending dollars and should be able to have a say in how it is cooked!
Enjoy!