By popular demand, I am continuing this series of posts where I obtain a restaurant’s nutritional information and hack through it to find the low sodium menu items to aid my fellow sojourners to be able to adhere to their low sodium diets and lifestyles and still dine out. This time the restaurant is Applebee’s and you can find their nutritional information I used listed here.
I was pretty dismayed overall with the menu. A majority of the items all contain well over 1000 mg of sodium for the meal, and go up as you add on sides. Considering the recommendations for a healthy sodium intake is only 1500 mg a day, you would hit your daily sodium limit in one meal. All areas of the menu, from Appetizer’s and salads, to sandwiches and entrees were in these high ranges. I actually found more low sodium options at McDonald’s which you can see here.
I resorted to the usual tricks of even checking the Children’s menu, as this is typically a way to control the sodium through the smaller portions that a restaurant uses for the kid’s meal. So, can I eat low sodium at Applebee’s? Here is the recommendation for a meal that you can enjoy at Applebee’s and still stay within your sodium limit for the day.
First off, just to know what the worst item on the menu is, the Sizzling Skillet Fajitas with Rice, Shrimp, & Steak – Tri-tip. It comes in at a whopping 5960 mg of sodium.
Our safer low sodium meal also includes steak as well. The 4 oz. Sirloin form the “Kid’s Really Really Hungry Menu” comes in at 610 mg without sides. A baked potato side from the regular menu comes in at 120 mg.
Other menu options are a House salad is 400 mg and 85 mg for the Oriental dressing, or you can get the Caesar salad, dressed, for 490 mg.
Two other menu items you could have as your main if you don’t want the sirloin would be the corn dog at 590 mg or the kids Macaroni and Cheese at 550 mg. There are also some very good options for sides on the kids menu such as white rice for 140 mg or steamed broccoli for 25 mg and apple dippers with yogurt for 25 mg.
Chirs
What REALLY scares me is how much salt they put in food. Most restaurants do this to mask the taste of the food item prepared. It is not just restaurants. Pick up a package of pre-cut french fires. Unless they are cascadian farms, or Simply Potatoes, they tend to have 300 mg of salt per serving. It is SO easy to cut up potatoes and bake your own fries and have MAYBE 5 mg of salt to your diet.
I also make breaded chicken nuggets with ONLY 70 mg of salt per serving (yes that is correct!) – will have to post the recipe later. I also can pickles which do require some salt (doing them in the crock pot you could get away with no salt), but it is basically 50 mg per pickle of salt so it is not too bad vs others at 290 mg per serving. With that being said, I pretty much keep to 1500 mg or less per day, which is not too difficult. If I am too low which is another bad thing, then it is one serving of cheese to add that extra 90-140 mg of salt.
So if you are at work and are forced to eat out, these are some good suggestions. But looking at Applebees, there really are no good choices. Just curious how they get 120mg salt for a baked potato unless this includes toppings like cheese.
For your next article, pick Chik-fil-a if you have those around you as they have some great food with some choices lower in salt than others 🙂
Tim
Thank you! Just ate at Applebee’s and made the waitress come back 3 times because I wasn’t ready to order, since I was using my phone to look at sodium content of their menu. Finally settled on the 7 oz. Sirloin, and ate just half. Half the (rock hard) baked potato, and half the (probably frozen and therefore higher in sodium) veggies. No low sodium choices.
Thanks for the head’s up.
Thank you for doing this. I am new to a low sodium diet and continue searching with hopes for finding dining out items. I can do fairly well at home but the fast food places and restaurants have me baffled.
I was so pleased to find this website because I am a heart patient and had pretty well resigned myself to never eating out again! Reducing sodium drastically has been so hard for me so this post was a real blessing. I really appreciate any help I can get!
Glad you found us! Let us know if we can ever help!