The Dish
Pad Thai has 1,400 calories
March 5, 2010
Megan Ogilvie
HEALTH REPORTER
To help you navigate the
food court and choose more wisely from a menu, we're sending popular
restaurant dishes to a nutrition lab to find out their calorie, fat and
sodium content. Then we're asking a registered dietitian to analyze the
numbers and to tell us what makes the entrée a good or bad choice and
to make suggestions on ways to ease the impact on our waistlines.
Dish: Pad Thai with tiger shrimp and chicken
Restaurant: Spring Rolls
Location: 85 Front St. E.
Price: $10.99
Most people might think pad Thai is a safe bet when eating out. It has a light, fresh taste, and noodles tossed with skinless chicken, vegetables and herbs have to be better than spring rolls dripping in grease, right?
"The nutrition information paints a different story. It's shocking," says registered dietitian Carol Harrison, who reeled at the sodium in the dish.
"It's through the roof!" she says. "At 3,160 mg per serving, you're eating two days of sodium in just one sitting."
Not convinced that's bad? It's the equivalent of one-and-half teaspoons of salt. Hardly a healthy addition to any meal.
At 1,382 calories, the pad Thai has more than double the amount you should be eating for a meal, Harrison says. Keep in mind that doesn't include extra calories in the full dinner, from the spring roll appetizers to the fruity cocktails or
decadent desserts. It's possible to consume more than your daily recommended allowance of calories in one sitting.
And with pad Thai's close to 50 grams of fat, you'll want to eat lean the rest of the day. The dish accounts for about 75 per cent of a woman's and 65 per cent of a man's recommended daily fat intake.
There are two ways you can make this dish better for waistlines and arteries: Split the dish or ask for more veggies and fewer noodles.
"To save your wallet and your waistline, eat half and take the rest for lunch the next day," Harrison says. "Or split it with a friend. You're still getting 650 calories, which is totally reasonable for one meal."
By asking for more vegetables and fewer noodles, you also boost your intake of dietary fibre and cut calories. The oodles of rice noodles makes this dish heavy on starch, so those who want to avoid refined carbs have been warned.
"When it feels like a treasure hunt looking for veggies in your dish, ask the restaurant for more," Harrison says. "That's not a rude or unreasonable request."
Toronto Star
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