I heard that sodium is not really a problem unless you have a specific condition like high blood pressure or something. I mean... I guess tons of sodium can't be fabulous, but...

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Wow, Macaroni Grill got hit hard in that MSNBC list.... yeesh.

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I've done the whole "watch your sodium" bit here on Slashfood before, mostly complaining that without actual numbers, it's impossible to guess how much sodium is in the food, and some of us DO have specific medical needs. For those who don't have one yet, consider about about 90% of Americans will eventually develop high blood pressure, and that reducing sodium consumption by half could eliminate up to 150,000 deaths annually. For more on all the medical stuff, see http://cspinet.org/salt/ and check out the links.

But I have some experience with this food, and I shall actually defend Brinker's here (owners of both Chili's and Macaroni Grill) because, unlike most other chains, they DO publish nutrition information. Actually, looking at the list, this is some pretty lazy-ass reporting: they didn't try to get nutrition figures from places like Olive Garden or Johnny Carino's or The Cheesecake Factory that REFUSE to publish nutrition information, so they're punishing the ones that actually provide the information by calling out some numbers without enough context.

To be specific:

* Chili's Guiltless Chicken platter comes in at 2780mg of sodium because it's served with rice, and the "guiltless" rice side dish weighs in at 1080mg of sodium by itself. The Black Beans side dish comes in at 640mg. The lowest-sodium entree at Chili's is the Guiltless Salmon, but take out the black beans and switch in corn on the cob. The whole platter is then about 540mg of sodium. See Chili's nutrition info for yourself at http://www.brinker.com/gr/nutritional/chilis_nutrition_menu.pdf and judge for yourself.

* Romano's Macaroni Grill Chicken Florentine (salad) is listed at 5460mg of sodium because it comes with orzo pasta, which is cooked, like most pasta and rice, in salted water - but unlike rice, orzo doesn't absorb all the water, so some unknown amount of the sodium stays in the pot, but Brinker's lists it all anyway. (The only way to get more accurate numbers would be to have actual sample dishes analyzed by labs, and that gets expensive, so a lot of chains try to avoid it.) Even CSPI, the people leading the "less salt" crusade, refused to recognize Macaroni Grill's sodium numbers for orzo dishes in a recent article, saying they were "unrealistically high," and that the real number was lower, though they couldn't say by how much.

(plus, the "only reasonable insalata on the menu" is not the Mozzarella Alla Caprese, it's the House salad with Cider Viniagrette dressing, combining for only 490mg of sodium. Unfortunately, I ate at Macaroni Grill on Saturday, and they told me Cider Viniagrette was no longer available, so I had to skip the salad. :-(

See Macaroni Grill nutrition information for yourself at http://www.brinker.com/gr/Nutritional/Mac_NutritionalInfo.pdf if you like.

* Chili's Buffalo Chicken Fajitas at 5690mg of sodium? Not according to the nutritional info, which lists them as 4080 (still not good!). That's largely due to the buffalo wing sauce they're cooked in, which is mostly hot sauce, and most hot sauces are just vinegar, peppers, and salt (and some other spices - Tabasco brand original hot sauce is just vinegar, peppers, and salt, and at 30mg of sodium per teaspoon, one of the lowest sodium hot sauces available). The ranch dressing is another 370mg of sodium (or 480mg if you go low-fat ranch; low-fat versions are almost always saltier), and the flour tortillas are 325mg of sodium each, which is too typical for mass-produced tortillas. Rice and black beans are another 1790mg of sodium as noted earlier. But even without all these add-ons, the fajita meat itself is pretty high in sodium -- because it's marinated in seasoning first, and that almost always means "lots of salt" whether you call it "tenderizing" or "brining." (Most popular soy sauces, often used in non-Mexican beef marinades, are about 1200-1500mg of sodium per tablespoon.)

* Romano's Macaroni Grill Teriyaki Salmon: yes, teriyaki is sweetened soy sauce, but again, the numbers here come from the fact that it's served with orzo, cooked in salted water and whose drained salt is counted even though it's not on your plate. The real number is probably somewhere around 3500mg of sodium, not the 6590mg listed. Not great, but not the same. (If you want grilled food at Macaroni Grill, get the Pollo Magro "Skinny Chicken," weighing in at only 330 calories and 770mg of sodium as served.)

* Macaroni Grill's Chicken Portobello as the "Saltiest Dish in America" at 7300mg of sodium? Only the saltiest one these lazy reporters could find, and even then only that high because (wait for it) it's served with orzo. I'd hope this would get Brinker's to recompute the sodium numbers on these menus with actual amounts, not just "all the salt we threw into the pot including the stuff that doesn't go on the plate," but I'll bet you a Krispy Kreme Glazed Original (mmm, 95mg sodium) that you can find things at any Italian chain that are higher in sodium, because they're too afraid to publish the numbers. At least Macaroni Grill tries, and errs on the side of caution, and this lazy reporter slams them for it without bothering to find out what's really going on.

Try finding out how much salt is in any but a few carefully chosen samples at Zio's, or Johnny Carino's, or Olive Garden, or Red Lobster, or dozens of others. Red Lobster only publishes PARTIAL numbers for its "Lighthouse Menu," and those numbers do not include sodium.

Yes, there are still too few low-sodium choices at Chili's and Macaroni Grill, but they at least let you know what's going on, or warn you away from stuff you shouldn't risk. This report is worse than no information at all: it provides inaccurate information out of context to scare people. All I'm asking is for accurate information so I can make my own choices, and I run into obstacles at every turn.

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