Low-sodium restaurant guide

Why sodium matters when eating out

How do you eat low sodium at a restaurant?

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day for most adults, with an ideal target of 1,500 mg for people who stand to benefit most, which includes many people with high blood pressure. Americans average about 3,400 mg a day, according to the FDA. A restaurant entree can carry 1,500 mg or more, so one sitting can take up most of a day's limit.

Restaurants are difficult because the sodium is there before you see the plate. The FDA says over 70% of dietary sodium comes from packaged and prepared foods rather than from salt added while cooking or eating. You can't season your way out of a choice that was made in the kitchen.

Here's one useful definition to carry with you. The FDA classifies a food as low sodium at 140 mg or less per serving. Reduced sodium only means at least 25% less than the regular version, which on a 1,600 mg dish still leaves you at 1,200 mg. Read the number, not the adjective.

For the home side of this, our low-sodium foods guide covers what to stock, and our guide to the DASH diet covers the eating pattern with the strongest evidence behind it for blood pressure.

Low-sodium restaurant planning

What should you do before you go out?

Most of the work happens before you sit down. Under FDA menu labeling rules, restaurant chains with 20 or more locations must have written nutrition information, sodium included, available on request, and many publish it online. So a few minutes with the menu at home lets you decide while you aren't hungry, which is a very different decision from the one you make with bread on the table.

Where numbers aren't published, the useful signal is how the food gets made. Restaurants cooking to order have more room to leave the salt out. Fast-casual chains assembling from pre-prepared components often can't, because the sodium went in upstream. Independent kitchens are often the more flexible option for this reason, which is the opposite of what many people assume.

If you're traveling or caught out, MyFitnessPal and Nutritionix both list many chain menus and can give you a number in about a minute. Treat those as estimates, since chains reformulate and some entries come from other users.

What to tell your server about sodium

What do you say to your server?

Say it when you first order, not after the food arrives. Here's a script that works:

Servers handle dietary requests constantly, so this won't be the strangest thing they hear today. For anything more involved, like a set menu, a large group or an unfamiliar kitchen, call ahead and give them time.

Ask how things are made too, because the surprises are rarely where you expect. A baked potato is sometimes rolled in salt before it goes in the oven. Grilled chicken is often brined or rubbed with a sodium-heavy blend before it touches the grill. Neither of those reads as salty on the menu.

Low-sodium restaurant orders

What should you order at a restaurant?

These are general patterns rather than rules. Every kitchen differs, but they hold more often than not.

Usually lower and usually higher sodium, by course

Low-sodium options by cuisine

What are the low-sodium picks by cuisine?

Each cuisine has one or two variables that matter more than everything else on the menu.

Lowest-sodium fast food options

What are the lowest-sodium fast food options?

It's harder, but not impossible. Chains do reformulate, and listings don't always agree, so check the current number if it matters to you.

Sodium in some common fast food orders

Wendy's plain baked potato is the standout at 40 mg, against about 620 mg for medium fries on the same listing site. Sour cream and chives add about 15 mg.

Chick-fil-A's 8-count grilled nuggets have 440 mg and 25 grams of protein in 130 calories. The fried version has about 1,210 mg and 27 grams of protein in 250 calories, as our Chick-fil-A breakdown shows. So grilled has about a third of the sodium and slightly less protein. That's still a very good trade.

Beyond those, a 4-piece McNuggets comes in around 340 mg and a 6-inch Subway Veggie Delite around 320 mg. Plain eggs are usually one of the lower breakfast picks, though seasoning and butter vary by counter.

The general moves are the same everywhere:

• Skip the cheese, which often adds about 200 to 300 mg on its own.
• Ask for no salt on fries, which many chains will make fresh.
• Take sauces on the side and use them sparingly.
• Choose grilled over breaded, since the breading and the brine underneath both carry salt.

Flavor without salt at restaurants

How do you add flavor without the salt?

Low sodium doesn't have to mean bland, and the substitutions are things restaurants already have.

At the table, ask for lemon or lime wedges, freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes or vinegar, whether balsamic, red wine or cider. Acid does most of the work that salt was doing.

From the kitchen, fresh herbs, garlic, onion, citrus zest and a drizzle of olive oil are all easy asks. Most places will happily add them once you've explained why.

Balancing sodium across the week

How do you balance a meal out with the week?

Even a careful restaurant meal usually carries more sodium than the same food cooked at home. The practical approach is to think in days rather than meals. If dinner out comes to 1,200 mg, you have about 1,100 mg left for breakfast and lunch under a 2,300 mg limit. If your clinician gave you 1,500 mg, that leaves 300 mg, so you'd want to plan the whole day around that dinner or pick a different dinner.

That's easier when the home meals are decided in advance. Our nutrition information page lists sodium for every meal alongside calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber and cholesterol, so you can check the number before you order rather than guessing. If heart health is why you're here, Build a Meal Plan has a Heart Healthy filter that narrows the menu.

To be straight about it: prepared meals aren't automatically low in sodium, ours included. Our current menu runs from 360 to 1,550 mg a meal, with a median of 750 mg, and only two meals meet the FDA's low-sodium main dish rule: Basic Diced Chicken & Red Potatoes and Basic Chicken Strips & Rice. If you have a strict limit, the number matters more than the label, and at least here you can see it.

For the wider picture, our guide to the ten ways to promote heart health puts sodium in proportion against the other levers, and the complete meal prep guide covers building the routine at home.

If weight is also part of your plan, our Weight Loss Meal Plan is portion-controlled and calorie-controlled. It isn't a low-sodium plan, so check each meal's number first.

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