Fitness Gear: Test Your Salty Fast Food IQ!- Fitness Training For Life

UltimateFitnessGear Posting Page

Monday, June 2, 2008

By Joe Wilkes

Never let it be said that your local fast food establishment isn't doing its part to make sure you get your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of sodium. Why, some of them can give you your entire day's worth (2,400 mg) with one menu item! Rank these fast-food sodium Hall-of-Famers in order from least to most milligrams of sodium.

McDonald's 5-Piece Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips – 1,680 mg of sodium. The Golden Arches were actually one of the better chains in terms of purveying salt. Granted, the bar is set pretty low, and you're still going to get plenty of salt when you hit Mickey D's. What's amazing is how unhealthy the Chicken Selects are. Premium must be McDonald's speak for "loaded with junk." With 660 calories, 40 grams of fat, and 1,680 mg of sodium, don't think you're doing yourself any favors by choosing this white-meat option. The Big Mac only has 540 calories, 29 grams of fat, and 1,040 grams of sodium. Not exactly health food, but if you're gonna splurge, don't assume it's the worst thing on the menu.

Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Chicken Burrito – 2,160 mg of sodium. Make a run for the border before your heart gives out from hypertension. Taco Bell may have given us the concept of the fourth meal, but this burrito will ensure that you get almost your entire day's worth of sodium in one sitting. But don't worry, you can get up to your full daily allowed 2,400 mg by adding two or three packets of hot sauce. With only 370 mg of sodium, sodium watchers should check out the Crunchy Taco Supreme instead.

KFC Chicken & Biscuit Bowl – 2,420 mg of sodium. If you're a frequent Beachbody® quiz taker, you'll recognize this little bowl of grossness from other quizzes. It also packs 870 calories and 44 grams of fat (a quarter of which are saturated and 4.5 of which are trans—the worst kind). Heard of heart-smart foods? This one's heart-stupid. It's pretty much caulk for your arteries with its fat content, and its sodium content will jack up your blood pressure to get it to flow through your poor, clogged veins. Try the Honey BBQ KFC Snacker instead. It only has 530 mg of sodium. That's still almost a fifth of your RDA, but about as good as you're going to do with the Colonel. Clearly, at least one of the secret herbs and spices is salt.

Pizza Hut 6" Meat Lover's Personal Pan Pizza – 2,460 mg of sodium. This just edges out the KFC Chicken & Biscuit Bowl. Its fat and calories are also comparable. There aren't a lot of low-sodium options under the red roof, but a slice of the green pepper, red onion, and diced tomato Fit n' Delicious pizza will only run you about 420 mg. This is a good reminder about how much sodium processed meats bring to the table.

Subway 6" Double Meat Italian BMT – 2,850 mg of sodium. This subway's first stop is at the salt mines. If this is what Jared ate to lose all that weight, some of that weight was probably kidney stones. And they even ask if you want extra salt on your sandwich. Classic. This again shows the salty secrets of processed meat. But even the more innocent meats at Subway, like turkey breast, are soaked with 1,000 mg of salt. Your best bet is to skip the meat and get the Veggie Delite sub. The 6" version "only" contains 500 mg of sodium.

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by: UltimateFitnessGear