4 ms·

One Chipotle burrito has more than 100% of your DV of sodium

11 points by RougeFemme 13y ago

meepmorp 13y ago
The title editorializes the article, which doesn't single out Chipotle over other food options, and is titled (more accurate ) "What does half your DV of sodium look like?"
stusmall 13y ago
I've been working hard to keep my sodium intake low. It is really hard. Your palate becomes very used to it and some things taste very off without it. Whenever I make a veggie stew it is this battle in my mind of how I want it to taste and how long I want to live.
- jeremyw 13y ago
  Unless you are hypertensive, there is no evidence you need to do this. Blanket low-salt recommendations are not supported by RCTs.
letstryagain 13y ago
It's time to end the war on salt http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L5W2saZr9a8J:www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L5W2saZ... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-thi...
bradleyland 13y ago
I would love to know how they built that burrito. There is no such thing as a "Chipotle Burrito", because of the way Chipotle has structured their ordering system. There are literally thousands of possible combinations. Many of the popular combinations do not have nearly that much sodium. Chipotle provides a really great nutrition calculator: https://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx https://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nut... Tips to keep your Chipotle sodium intake low: * Fewer ingredients means less sodium; pick your components strategically for flavor, not quantity! * At 690 mg of sodium, enemy #1 is that flour tortilla; go with a bowl or salad instead. Note that the rest of these values are for the burrito bowl, not the burrito (some differ between the two). * Stick to the chicken or steak, which have more than 200 mg less sodium than any other meat on the line. * The brown rice (165 mg) has less than half the sodium of the white rice. * Surprisingly, the fresh tomato salsa is loaded with sodium at 500 mg; you're better off with less of the spicier green tomatillo salsa. * Sorry hot fans, the hot red-tomatillo salsa has the same amount of sodium as the fresh tomato :( * Another one that surprises people is the guacamole (410 mg), but only if you haven't looked at most guacamole recipes. I recommend going to the Chipotle nutrition calculator and adding everything to a bowl, then look over the list. I found that by cutting out one or two ingredients, we (I always share a bowl with my wife) dramatically reduce our sodium intake. A bowl with chicken, brown rice, fajita veg, medium (green) salsa, cheese, and lettuce has 1085 mg of sodium and 525 calories. If you split that, you're looking at 543 mg of sodium and 263 calories, which is more than reasonable for a fast food meal. The reality is that the people on the line at Chipotle almost always over-serve the portions, so you end up with at least 30% more than that (at least in my experience). You're still close to a 400 calorie meal, and not doing terrible on the sodium.

11 points by RougeFemme 13y ago

The title editorializes the article, which doesn't single out Chipotle over other food options, and is titled (more accurate ) "What does half your DV of sodium look like?"

stusmall 13y ago

I've been working hard to keep my sodium intake low. It is really hard. Your palate becomes very used to it and some things taste very off without it. Whenever I make a veggie stew it is this battle in my mind of how I want it to taste and how long I want to live.

jeremyw 13y ago
Unless you are hypertensive, there is no evidence you need to do this. Blanket low-salt recommendations are not supported by RCTs.

letstryagain 13y ago

It's time to end the war on salt http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L5W2saZr9a8J:www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L5W2saZ... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-think-we-know-the-truth-about-salt.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/opinion/sunday/we-only-thi...

bradleyland 13y ago

I would love to know how they built that burrito. There is no such thing as a "Chipotle Burrito", because of the way Chipotle has structured their ordering system. There are literally thousands of possible combinations. Many of the popular combinations do not have nearly that much sodium. Chipotle provides a really great nutrition calculator: https://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx https://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nut... Tips to keep your Chipotle sodium intake low: * Fewer ingredients means less sodium; pick your components strategically for flavor, not quantity! * At 690 mg of sodium, enemy #1 is that flour tortilla; go with a bowl or salad instead. Note that the rest of these values are for the burrito bowl, not the burrito (some differ between the two). * Stick to the chicken or steak, which have more than 200 mg less sodium than any other meat on the line. * The brown rice (165 mg) has less than half the sodium of the white rice. * Surprisingly, the fresh tomato salsa is loaded with sodium at 500 mg; you're better off with less of the spicier green tomatillo salsa. * Sorry hot fans, the hot red-tomatillo salsa has the same amount of sodium as the fresh tomato :( * Another one that surprises people is the guacamole (410 mg), but only if you haven't looked at most guacamole recipes. I recommend going to the Chipotle nutrition calculator and adding everything to a bowl, then look over the list. I found that by cutting out one or two ingredients, we (I always share a bowl with my wife) dramatically reduce our sodium intake. A bowl with chicken, brown rice, fajita veg, medium (green) salsa, cheese, and lettuce has 1085 mg of sodium and 525 calories. If you split that, you're looking at 543 mg of sodium and 263 calories, which is more than reasonable for a fast food meal. The reality is that the people on the line at Chipotle almost always over-serve the portions, so you end up with at least 30% more than that (at least in my experience). You're still close to a 400 calorie meal, and not doing terrible on the sodium.