--- title: 7 Foods That Are Way Saltier Than You Thought description: Sodium bombs are hidden in corners of the menu you’d never expect. Milkshakes, salads and shrimp have way more salt than you think canonical: https://time.com/4130878/salt-sodium-fast-food/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-01T20:39:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:59.553Z article:section: Health og:title: 7 Restaurant Meals That Are Way Saltier Than You Think og:description: Here are 7 astounging sodium bombs at chain restaurants og:url: https://time.com/4130878/salt-sodium-fast-food/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2592cf9411f8a574/698763678e06010910457fc2/shrimp-mislabeled.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2864 og:image:height: 1611 og:image:alt: Shrimp og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Restaurant Meals That Are Way Saltier Than You Think twitter:description: Here are 7 astounging sodium bombs at chain restaurants twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2592cf9411f8a574/698763678e06010910457fc2/shrimp-mislabeled.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 7 Restaurant Meals That Are Way Saltier Than You Think > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Should I Drink Tomato Juice? [Watch (HLS stream): Should I Drink Tomato Juice?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IzSdsTxN.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2015-05-27. At 30,000 feet, tomato juice is almost as popular as beer, the top-selling beverage on planes. But its health benefits are more up in the air, our experts say._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 1, 2015 8:39 PM UTC  America's favorite seafood? Shrimp. It's easy to see why; shrimp are available fresh or frozen, shell-on and peeled, raw and cooked. Shrimp lend themselves to countless dishes, from curries to gumbos to kebabs to stir fries. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images) America's favorite seafood? Shrimp. It's easy to see why; shrimp are available fresh or frozen, shell-on and peeled, raw and cooked. Shrimp lend themselves to countless dishes, from curries to gumbos to kebabs to stir fries. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune/MCT via Getty Images) Chicago Tribune—MCT/Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 1, 2015 8:39 PM UTC Salt has never looked so scary: a little white shaker surrounded by a forbidding black triangle. That’s the symbol diners will start seeing [on the menus of chain restaurants in New York City](http://time.com/money/4129715/high-salt-sodium-warning-nyc/), which are now required to label items with the symbol when they exceed 2,300 mg of sodium. That’s the current recommended limit _for an entire day_ of the white stuff. Sound extreme? Sodium bombs are hidden in corners of the menu you’d never expect. **Chop’t or Applebee’s Salads** You’d never shake salt on a salad. Yet a kale chicken Caesar salad from Chop’t has **1,490 mg** sodium: about 65% of the recommended limit. Order at Applebee’s, and your pecan crusted chicken salad, at **2,390 mg**, will wipe out your whole day’s salt allotment. **Hale and Hearty soup** Low-fat, sure, but many soups are sodium bombs. A large 16-ounce bowl of lemon chicken soup with spinach and orzo, from Hale and Hearty Soups, has **2,436 mg** sodium. **Sonic Blast Milkshakes** Desserts aren’t just the realm of sugar. At the burger chain Sonic, a large Sonic Blast—made with pieces of Oreos and ice cream—has **1,270 mg** of sodium (plus 177 grams of the sweet stuff.) **Chipotle chips and salsa** An order of chips and fresh tomato salsa from Chipotle has **920 mg** of sodium, which is more salt than the amount found in three large orders of French fries at McDonald’s. **MORE:** [90% of Americans Eat Too Much Salt](http://time.com/3944545/sodium-heart/) **Applebee’s lemon grilled chicken** It might seem like a relatively healthy choice, but order cedar grilled lemon chicken from Applebee’s, and you’ll be eating **2,480 mg** of sodium in one entree. **MORE:** [38 Things Americans Say They’ve Found In A Hot Dog](http://time.com/3962421/hot-dogs-2/) **Wingstop chicken wings** They’re barely enough to make a meal, but half a dozen original hot wings from Wingstop somehow have **1,299 mg** sodium. **Friday’s shrimp** Shrimp has sodium naturally, but eat it at a restaurant, and the numbers get fishy fast. 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