I just don't understand....

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riley711
riley711 Posts: 298 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I don't understand how lettuce, 7 grape tomatoes, a little cucumber, less than half of a sliced egg, onion and a little bit of bacon bits and a half cup of chicken breast adds up to 410 calories and 2200+ mg of sodium. That's what they say the calorie count is for the pot belly's farmhouse salad (no blue cheese, no dressing). Any explanations out there????

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  • bm99
    bm99 Posts: 597 Member
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    Is that some kind of fast food salad? Sometimes even their salad sodium is over the top because they need everything to last longer and look "fresh" so they add more preservatives.
  • MsTanya77
    MsTanya77 Posts: 357 Member
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    If the chicken breast was processed, i.e. frozen chicken or chicken in a can, then that is where most of your sodium went. Those pre-packaged salads have to be preserved hence the high sodium content............
  • liftingheavy
    liftingheavy Posts: 551 Member
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    I don't understand how lettuce, 7 grape tomatoes, a little cucumber, less than half of a sliced egg, onion and a little bit of bacon bits and a half cup of chicken breast adds up to 410 calories and 2200+ mg of sodium. That's what they say the calorie count is for the pot belly's farmhouse salad (no blue cheese, no dressing). Any explanations out there????

    410 calories seems high but the sodium does not suprise me. Are you sure it's only 1/2 cup of chicken on those things? I had one a long time ago and can't remember. The bacon is real too if I recall so that has a few calories too.
  • wowmom23
    wowmom23 Posts: 36 Member
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    I love Potbelly. I, too, would be surprised. That has to be including the cheese and dressing. If you add all that up individually, it can't be 400+ calories.
  • cmayfield3
    cmayfield3 Posts: 176 Member
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    So according to the nutrition calculator, it has:

    45 cals of veggies
    44 calories of eggs
    120 calories of bacon (I guess they use real bacon)
    108 calories of chicken

    total 316
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
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    um... its all the bacon bits, I promise. Substituting little pieces of real bacon would absolutely fix that!! OMNOMNOMNOM
  • Sasha_Bear
    Sasha_Bear Posts: 625 Member
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    Potbell'ys chicken is processed that's why, I try to stay away from there everything is high in sodium!
  • riley711
    riley711 Posts: 298 Member
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    Thanks everyone!!! I do believe the chicken is processed, but there's not much of it. And I'm not sure it has that much sodium. Since I've been watching my sodium intake, I can kinda tell when something has a lot of sodium in it. The bacon is real...about the equivalent of 1 - 2 slices. But preservatives in lettuce, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and onions??? On the menu board, it is listed at 410 calories, but I don't eat cheese too much so I never add it to my salads. Trying to eat right most of the time, but as y'all know, it definitely gets frustrating. I think in the future, I will use the calculator. I make a similar salad at home using perdue shortcuts chicken, and it comes to just over half the calories of the Potbelly's salad.

    Thanks again for your input, support and information!!!

    Joy and Blessings!!!
  • Kalynx
    Kalynx Posts: 707 Member
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    From Potbelly's website here is what the breakdown is -

    Naked salad - (no chicken cheese, dressing, bacon) Sodium =15mg

    Salad + Boiled Eggs = 50mg total

    Salad + Eggs + Blue Cheese = 384mg total

    Salad + Eggs + Blue Cheese + Bacon Pieces = 804mg total

    Salad + Eggs + Blue Cheese + Bacon Pieces + Grilled Chicken =1410mg

    Much better to just make this at home with lower sodium bacon and chicken that was not frozen (packaged in a salt solution), but you cant eat at home all the time and take the hit if you eat out at a lot of places - I try to avoid things or resturants if I can if I know they do not use fresh ingredients. Its pretty obvious here that either they salt the heck out of that chicken in food prep or it came to them frozen.

    I think whoever entered the salad into MFP included their dressing. Total calories should be 404 and fat is 10g (again, according to potbelly's nutrition calculator).

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