The Dish: A chicken bento box is the saltiest dish we’ve analyzed yet
(From the Toronto Star)November 17, 2011Megan OgilvieHEALTH REPORTER
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DISH: Chicken supreme bento box
RESTAURANT: Sushi on Bloor
LOCATION: 515 Bloor St. W.
PRICE: $9.50
Emma has a bet to settle over a bento box.
The University of Toronto student loves going to Sushi on Bloor with her boyfriend for a cosy date-night dinner. They never mind the typical 20-minute delay for a table at the bustling Annex eatery; the food, she says, is worth the wait.
A self-described “sashimi kinda gal,” Emma always orders tuna and salmon sashimi from the à la carte menu. Her boyfriend, who is an anti-sushi kinda guy, opts for the chicken supreme bento box.
This meal — like many bento box combos — starts with a bowl of miso soup and a crispy pile of iceberg lettuce topped with a thick ginger dressing. Then, neatly arranged in the bento box, there is a selection of crispy tempura, six slices of sushi, a generous mound of steamed white rice and an artfully arrayed portion of sweetly spiced chicken Teriyaki.
“We tend to disagree on how healthy this meal choice is,” Emma wrote to The Dish. While she thinks the bento box is calorific, her boyfriend insists it’s healthier than a fast food burger combo.
“On one hand, there is a good sized portion of chicken and there are veggies in the salad and tempura. But on the other hand, the Teriyaki sauce must be deadly and I’m pretty sure deep-frying yams doesn’t count as the healthiest way to get your vitamins.
“So settle a bet: Is the chicken supreme bento box a good choice at a sushi restaurant?”
It only took a quick look at the lab results to come up with an answer: An emphatic, echoing, shout-it-out-loud “No!”
All together, this bento box combo contains 1,685 calories, 48 grams of fat and 3,861 mg of sodium.
That means it has — and listen up, Emma’s boyfriend — 645 more calories, 12 more grams of fat and 1,781 mg more sodium than a Harvey’s cheeseburger combo with a regular-sized order of fries and Pepsi.
The Dish has investigated foods that have clocked in with more calories and fat (the platter of nachos from Wayne Gretzky’s, for example) but in many cases these foods are clearly indulgences or are meant to share. The chicken bento box, while offering a copious amount of food, appears to be a relatively healthy choice with its lean chicken, salad, vegetables and small slices of sushi. Many of us would guess it to be friendlier on waist lines than fast food combos.
Registered dietitian Carol Harrison is flabbergasted by the amount of sodium — the equivalent of 1 ½ teaspoons of salt — in the meal.
“The 3,861 mg is 2 ½ days worth of sodium,” she says. “There is an entire weekend’s worth of sodium in this meal. I’d recommend people steer clear of it for that reason alone.
“It’s numbers like this that make me think we really need menu labelling so people can make informed choices. No meal needs that much sodium to taste terrific.”
(For regular Dish readers, note this meal has more sodium than any other tested so far!)
To put the meal’s calories in perspective, Harrison says people who eat the contents of the entire bento box will only be left with about 300 calories to spread out over breakfast and lunch and any snacks.
“And that’s without a drink with the bento box. And only if you drink water the rest of the day.”
Emma was speechless after hearing the nutrition numbers.
“No ... wow ... I’m floored. I didn’t know it would be that unhealthy.”
While she had expected to win the bet with her boyfriend, Emma could not believe the meal’s calories — and especially its sodium — were so over the top.
On their next visit, Emma says she will try to convince him to go for sushi instead of the bento box. But she isn’t sure her twenty-something, badminton-playing, calorie-consuming boyfriend will accept the argument.
“He’ll just take this information to mean he can go to Burger King more often.”
Verdict: This is the saltiest dish we have tested yet.
Chicken supreme bento box
SERVING SIZE 1,170 grams
CALORIES 1,685
FAT 48 grams
SODIUM 3,861 mg
PROTEIN 77 grams
CARBOHYDRATES 236 grams
RECOMMENDED DAILY ALLOWANCE
Men/Women
Calories: 2,500/2,000
Fat: 60 to 105 grams/45 to 75 grams
Sodium: 1,500 to 2,300 mg
Carbohydrates: 281-325 grams
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