My New Sodium Restricted Life - Part 2

My New Sodium Life – Part 2

Before I was pregnant and during the beginning of my pregnancy, we cooked most meals at home and would eat out a couple times a week and then maybe once on the weekend.  We started to cook at home more often around my second trimester because I had gestational diabetes and I needed to watch my diet.  However, from time to time, we still enjoyed a few meals at restaurants.  For a couple of months after I had Lovebug, until my diagnosis, I could eat out unrestricted but I didn’t go out very often because we had a new baby at home. 

Sodium at Restaurants

I think that my first time eating out after my diagnosis was around January 13^th.  My little sister came in town for an interview and we decided to grab lunch.  I went online and I pulled up the nutrition facts from many restaurants including the Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Chili’s, and Applebee’s.   I know some people don’t necessarily like to eat at chain restaurants but there aren’t many restaurants, other than chains, that post their nutrition facts online.  There are a few websites like sparkpeople, nutrition-charts, caloriecount, fat secret, calorieking, and healthydiningfinder that have nutrition facts for a wider variety of restaurants.  The problem that I have with third-party sites is I am not sure how accurate the information is and often nutritional details aside from calories, fat, carbs and protein may be missing.  As a personal preference, I would rather be sure that I am staying within my daily limits so I try to stick with restaurants where the nutrition details are listed on that restaurants website. 

Additionally, many restaurants will accommodate special requests for a low sodium diet.  Ask if there are items that can be prepared without salt or seasonings containing salt.  For example, if I eat out and order an egg, I ask them to cook the egg without any seasoning.  I was even told at one restaurant when I made this request that they never put any seasonings in their omelets.  Also, you should request that items, such as cheese, sauce and salad dressing, that are high in sodium are put on the side.  This way you can choose not to eat those items or to eat less than the full serving.

There are two approaches that I have to eating out.  If I’ve decided to have a “cheat meal”, I may or may not look up the nutrition facts and I limit my daily sodium from other meals to 1000mg.  If I am eating out but sticking to my 1500mg limit, I find meals that are under 1000mg and my other meals during the day will make up the difference.   

I decided to go to Red Lobster so that I could stay under my daily 1500mg limit.  I ordered the fried farm raised catfish lunch.  This was 440mg of sodium which includes the tartar sauce (from what I understand).  I added a plain baked potato without salt which dramatically lowers the amount of sodium in the baked potato listed on the website.  Most of their items under Today’s Fresh Fish are low in sodium but it looks like that only includes the fish so be careful when adding sides which are listed separately.  Also, the Create Your Own (“CYO Combo”) meals have some items that are low in sodium.  I am not sure how many you select to create your combo but even two will start to add up.  There are a few items that exceed 2300mg (the daily maximum for adults without heart complications).  The Admiral’s Feast for example is 4,050mg and the Crab Linguini Alfredo is 4520mg. 

I didn’t find as many options when I looked up the nutrition facts for Olive Garden.  The Chicken Margarita, Herb-Grilled Salmon and Ravioli di Portobello are all under 800mg. The Herb-Grilled Salmon is the only dinner item under 1000mg.  It looks like it’s possible to build a dinner with less than 1000 mg.  For example, the pastas all have 10mg of sodium, traditional marinara sauce has 720mg and the chicken topping is 230mg.  Another option is to order the pasta with half the marinara sauce and top with meatballs or shrimp which have 580mg of sodium.  Remember not to add parmesan cheese and it’s probably best to avoid the breadsticks and salad.  If you’re anything like me, no breadsticks and salad at the Olive Garden might make you sad BUT the good news is………. you can order almost any wine, signature wine cocktails, traditional favorites (margaritas) or beer that you’d like.