Hello and welcome to dining debunked episode 1. So you guys seemed to really
enjoy my healthy choices at fast food restaurants vlog that I did a while ago and
I've gotten a lot of requests to do more stuff similar to that so I thought we
would sort of make it into a series where I take you with me out to eat at
chain restaurants and we can go through the menu together go through the
nutrition together and if you do enjoy this type of video don't forget to give
it a thumbs up and comment below so that I know that you want me to make more. So
without further ado, first up is Panera Bread. One of the problems with Panera is there are not a
ton of choices that are actually healthy choices which is weird because it seems
like a healthy choice like it has a nice design and comfortable ambience and feels like
the sort of upscale cafe. The good thing is that they do make their nutrition
accessible so you can find this PDF with their nutrition online at their website
and most chain restaurant do that now which is great.
The biggest problem with making this accessible is that most people don't
know how to read it properly, or they don't know what they're looking for, or
they are only looking for the things that they've heard about before so they
know, "oh I'm supposed to have something lower in calories" or "I hear carbs are bad" or
"fat is bad" or these generalizations that aren't necessarily true. So when they see all
this is X amount of calories or fat or carbs they don't really know what it
means and having the nutrition there just doesn't do anything for those
people. So it is up to you to educate yourself to learn how to read those
labels properly so that you can make healthy choices without picking the
thing that's you know the lowest in calories or fat because that's not
always the best as we are going to see today. I personally try to think of food
as fuel. So when I decide to eat something I try to think is this option
going to fuel my body? Is it going to give me you know nutrients that are gonna make
me feel good and feel full? Now that doesn't mean that every single meal that
I consume at all times as fuel sometimes I indulge sometimes I want to
get the less healthy thing. The purpose of this is not for me to tell you to
not get the less healthy thing. If you want to do that's perfectly fine. I'm just
trying to help show you if you want to go to Panera and you're trying to stay
on track to keep making healthy choices what do you want to look for and what do
you want to avoid. So yeah I just want to put that little disclaimer out there for this
episode in any of these dining debunked episodes that we may do in the future. I
am not telling you to eat or not eat at these places. I'm not telling you that
any of the menu items are good or bad or that they must be avoided or that
you must eat them. I want you to pick whatever works for your lifestyle I am
simply reading the nutrition to you and going through it with you I'm just
making information more accessible. I'm not adding any other opinions to that.
Finally let's get to the nutrition. I am going to skip the bakery items and the breads
because we can assume that pastries are going to be higher in calories and fat and
obviously not the healthiest choice and in this video I really want to focus on
the things that people think are healthier. I do want to stop briefly at the fruit
smoothies. So they really market these to seem like a healthy choice but when
you look at the nutrition every single one of them makes a health claim
and I've told you that before health claims are a red flag. So it says fat
free you know green passion paris smoothie, low fat, low fat, superfruit power,
low fat, low fat, all these claims they really want you to think that it's healthy.
Let's just look at the low-fat wild berry smoothie. The one smoothie is 340
calories, it does only have 1.5 grams of fat so it is low-fat, it's
not a false claim but why do they need to claim that? Well there are 75 grams of carbs in this smoothie
68 of which are sugar. Now a lot of people might think oh that's okay
because it's natural it's from fruit but that's not exactly true when you look at
the ingredients which are not listed in this PDF but you can find them on the
Panera website. What's sweetening the smoothies are concentrate. So I'm not
going to go into what concentrate is I could talk about it all day long but
pretty much it's very very concentrated fruit juice so there is a lot more sugar
than you really need in it. If you guys are interested in me doing a video on
concentrated fruit juices and smoothies and stuff like that
leave a comment below so that I know but I'm not going to get into it today. So let's
start with paninis and sandwiches. The best option
macronutrient wise is the smoked turkey breast sandwich on country. The whole
sandwhich is only 430 calories, 3.5 grams of fat,
67 grams of carbs so still a little high on the cards but it's a pretty decent sized sandwich.
The macros don't seem terrible but this is actually not the sandwich that I
would recommend people choose. Now why is that? Reason number one, it is on country
bread which is just white bread. So we obviously want to go for whole wheat
options when we can because we want to go with whole grains and get more fiber. I
have done an entire video on how to choose bread so if you're interested I
will link that in the description box below. Not gonna talk about it today.
Reason number two, the micros so the micronutrients. Most people, maybe not you,
a lot of people might look at this and see "Oh if I get half of the sandwich it's
only 220 calories. Well that's pretty low that's pretty
good and it's only 2 grams of fat. But what they don't see is the sodium. So
890 milligrams in half of the sandwich. That means the
entire sandwich is 1790.
1,790 milligrams of sodium in that sandwich. Now this is where it becomes an issue where
if people don't know how to read this properly that number doesn't mean
anything to them. If they don't know how much sodium they're supposed to be
consuming then they don't know if that's a high number or not. To give you some
perspective the American Heart Association recommends that we consume
1,500 milligrams or less of sodium per day. That's debatable. I'm not saying they're
right or wrong but it is recommended for a reason. So what to take from that is
1790 in the entire sandwich is more sodium than is recommended for an entire
day. So my point is just because it is a lower-calorie option doesn't mean it is
the healthiest option. Now healthy is a relative term so I really hate using
it in this context because to some people you know the lowest calorie is
gonna be the healthiest and to some the lowest sodium is goinna be the healthiest and some the
highest protein is going to be the healthiest. So you know take it with a grain of salt but just understand
that 220 calories doesn't make this healthy. Let's move on from the sandwiches. Alright, salad. If
your salad still has 30 to 40 grams of carbs in it, is it really any
better than eating the sandwich? Now a lot of people would debate me on this.
I'm not telling you to go eat the sandwich instead of the salad I'm saying
take a closer look at what is in your salad. If you look at these salads
listed here not only are the cards high but the fat you know you've got 30 to
40 or more grams of fat in so many of these and why is that?
Probably the dressing. Let's take a look at one specifically. The
Mediterranean chicken and quinoa salad. Sounds really healthy right? 38 grams of
fat, 580 calories in the whole salad ok I can you know I can buy it I guess but if
you look at the dressing that comes with that salad which is the Greek herb
vinaigrette it is 210 calories and 23 grams of fat just in
the dressing. So if you've got 38 grams of fat in the salad and 23 of
those grams are from the dressing alone that's a lot. Now you could of course
get the dressing on the side so that you're in control of how much you're eating
and that will you know lower the fat I'm sure a bit but there might be other
ingredients that you're not thinking about like nuts or avocado or seeds and even
though those are healthy choices we still have to be aware of the overall
amount of fat we're consuming. So what's the perspective on that? The US Department of
Health and Human Services recommends 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories are
from fat. Again very debatable my goal today is not to debate you on nutrition it is to
simply provide you the facts. So if you are consuming 1,500 to 2,000 calories a
day which is pretty average you know maybe a little higher than that, that
would mean you're getting 30 to 40 grams of fat a day. So suddenly
this healthy choice of a salad becomes your entire amount of fat for the
day, 38 grams that's a lot. Now if you are concerned about how many grams or
milligrams of these macro or micro nutrients that you should be
specifically consuming I do recommend that you talk to your doctor. I am simply
referencing generalized recommendation amounts for educational purposes. I'm not
giving specific advice for any person.
Onto the soups. Another deceivingly unhealthy choice at Panera, many of these at
least. Right off the bat we know the breadbowl is going to add a lot of calories
and a lot of carbs to whatever soup you get. It looks like the breadbowl alone is
almost 550 calories, a 120 grams of carbs, and 900
milligrams of sodium. Just the bowl. So onto the soups. Here we go again with the
health claims. Low-fat chicken orzo soup. The bowl is only 180 calories, it's only 5 grams
of fat, but there are 1340, 1,340 milligrams of sodium.
Or the low-fat all natural chicken noodle soup the bowl 130
calories, 1.5 grams of fat really awesome macros right but
1,440 milligrams of sodium. That is high. And same
with the broth bowl. The lentil quinoa bowl with chicken sounds super healthy
1,370 milligrams of sodium. So again
lower in calories not necessarily more nutritious. And shout out to my boy
vegetarian creamy tomato soup you are really tasty but there are 32 grams of
fat and 33 grams of carbs in you. Why? Why in a soup? You know it's vegetarian and
it might be there might be some tomato in it but this is still not exactly the
fuel I want for my body. A lot of people might go in and think 'oh I'll get the you pick
two and I will get a salad and the mac and cheese' because you know it's a smaller
portion of the mac and cheese and having the salad to balance it out and if
you've thought this way before don't worry you're not alone. I used to do this
myself and that is why you know I, I've started learning how to read these on my
own because it's easy to make that mistake. You know a lot of people might
even, even be moderately aware of what they're ordering. They know that that small
cup of mac and cheese is 490 calories, 30 grams of fat. But what they don't think
about is that the salad even though it's only an extra 190 calories they're like
you know that only make it 680 calories. That's not so bad for my lunch 680
calories. But then what about the 47 grams of fat? Even if they're aware of
that are they aware that you know 570
milligrams of sodium + 1,020 milligram, so you're at 1,590 milligrams of sodium now from just
this salad and mac and cheese. Then you add in that extra French baguette which
is just kind of defaulted, they just put it on your plate even if we don't ask for
it and you're adding an extra 180 calories, 440 milligrams of
sodium. So your entire meal now racks up a whopping 2,190 milligrams of sodium
from just mac and cheese, salad, and a piece of bread. Again if you've done this
before you're not alone I'm right there with you I'm just saying this is why it
is important that now we together start to learn how to read these. It's not
science, it's just reading but it's knowing how to read them properly. So now we have
come to the point in the video we actually get to go in to eat some food.
What shall I order?
Alright, so I used to order the power bowls that Panera had but I guess they discontinued
those so I can't order those anymore. They have like a power hummus bowl and it was pretty tasty
and really good stats but it's gone. So I had to make a new choice today. So a lot of you
guys know I am NOT a huge salad person. When I go out to eat I pretty much want
to order all the other deliciousness and not eat a salad right. But one thing that
I've come to find in the past few months because I've been eating out more
is I sometimes like getting a salad when I'm out because they're preparing it.
They're you know having to do all the cutting and the prepping and I don't do
that at home and I don't want to spend time doing it at home. So when I go out I
get like all these great fruits and vegetables and I don't have to do the work.
So sometimes I like ordering a salad and at Panera because you can do the you pick
two I can get a salad and something else. So that's what I did today. I got the
strawberry, poppyseed, and chicken salad and it is the half size and the macros
on that are pretty good.
170 calories, 7 grams of fat, 150 milligrams of
sodium, 16 grams of carbs 3 of which are fiber, and 15 grams of protein. So
it's a decent choice and I also got a sandwich with that. I got the tuna
salad sandwich and it comes on honey wheat usually but I asked if they had whole wheat and they did
so I got that instead.
Half of it is 260 calories, 8 grams of fat,
550 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbs, and 14 grams of protein and
instead of the French baguette or the bread on the side I just went for the apple.
The entire macros for this
are 510 calories which is pretty good. It's a pretty solid lunch it's 15 grams of fat, 52
grams of carbs which is kind of high but I know that a lot of those cards are
coming from natural sugars from my apple from the fruit in my salad and also it
has 10 grams of fiber here which is great. I have
29 grams of protein and I have 700 milligrams sodium. So what I like
about this meal is I get my veggies in, I get to enjoy my veggies more because
there's fruit on top of the veggies and I still get to enjoy a sandwich and a
decent amount of protein in the entire thing. I wish it could be gluten-free
bread but hey ya can't get everything. So my biggest kind of concern with this meal is the
sodium and it's not like out of control high but it's definitely higher than if
I made this entire meal at home on my own. As you will see you'll find that
sodium will be a recurring issue with this series I'm sure. Anytime you go out to
eat they're just inherently going to add a lot more
salt. Now it's important to note that I didn't choose this meal because it's the
healthiest macronutrient wise. I chose it because it fits my lifestyle and my
preferences. So the other thing is you don't wanna go and order something just
because it's the healthiest if you don't want to eat right? Like I tried to get something
that I actually want to eat. If I actually wanted to pick the healthiest
thing on the menu it probably would have been the classic salad with chicken.
Which I just probably wouldn't have enjoyed eating as much. Just a bunch of
vegetables and some chicken. So now I'm getting to enjoy myself a little bit
more and not feel bad and that is the point. At the end of the day
Panera sort of makes me mad because they don't have a ton of choices
and I think that will be a problem with a lot of places especially because of
the sodium. But that doesn't mean that a healthy choice can't be made. It just
means we have to you know take the responsibility to do our own research
and figure out what is available and what's actually on the label of the food
that we eating. If you have a healthy go to at Panera please comment below and let
me know. And if you want me to do more of these let me know, if you have any ideas
of places you want me to go. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up because
that really does help give me great feedback letting me know what you guys
like and just before going I please, please, please ask you I can't ask you enough to be
open-minded with this series. This isn't me telling you what to do or that you're
doing anything you know right or wrong I'm just trying to bring awareness to
what's actually out there and
you know I'm just really I'm really just reading you the label. If you're like whatever I love my
mac and cheese a Panera, I'm going to eat it every time. Go for it. I'm not saying anything against
that I'm not judging it. I just want you to go and eat it and know what you're
eating. So I hope you found this useful. I hope that you have a great weekend. I
will see you on Monday and if you're eating at Panera remember it's all a
matter of Mind Over Munch.