How to Eat Healthy at Panera

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how to eat healthy at panera. Panera has a lot of different options on their menu and there is a variety of choices. Some people will go there just to get maybe a bagel or scone or some bread. Some people may be going there to actually eat a meal or a sandwich, or a salad or something like that, lunch or dinner. So there is a lot of things to keep in mind. If you are going just to get breads, the artisan breads, the signature breads. Those are basically all healthy choices as long as you limit it to a 2 ounce portion. They are all low in saturated fats. They don't have any transfat to them, moderate in sodium. The only caution with the signature bread is going to be the sourdough soup bowl because that is a whole loaf of sourdough bread. It does have a lot of carbohydrate in it and very high in sodium from that added soup. As far as the actual meals for the sandwiches, the best choices from the sandwiches are the half cafe sandwiches. The signature and the pennene sandwiches tend to have a lot more sodium in them. If you go for the half pennenes or the half signature sandwiches you are doing a bit better at reducing your saturated fat and reducing sodium but they still have a lot more sodium in them than just the regular half cafe sandwiches. With the salads the majority of the full and half salads are good choices but there are a few that you would do good to avoid. The full salads to avoid would be the full Asian, the full chicken, Caesar or regular Caesar, the full Greek and the full chicken fandango. These particular salads all have very high amounts of sodium and a lot of saturated fat as well. The half versions are o'kay. The only half salad that is best to avoid is the half Greek because that still has a lot of saturated fat and a lot of sodium in it. As far as the drinks go with the frozen drinks you want to be very careful. The only frozen drink that is really a good option is the frozen lemonade. Either size, the 16 or the 20 ounce or greater sizes, not that high in calories, it is about 90 to 120 calories, doesn't have any fat in it but there are other frozen drinks that have a very high amount of calories and a lot of saturated fat so it is best to avoid those. Then as far as their coffee drinks you want to avoid the lattes and you also want to avoid the hot chocolate because those have a lot of extra saturated fat in them as well. It would be best as far as drinks if you are having a meal to stick with something like water, one of the teas, regular or plain coffee, just avoid any that have a lot of cream added to them or a lot of extra sugar. So those are some basic tips for how to eat healthy at Panera."