Making smart nutritional choices is important at all times, especially when in a Chinese restaurant. There are a wide variety of dishes to choose from and each dish has a different amount of calorie and sodium content.
Calories
One serving of egg drop, hot & sour, and wonton soup contain 100 calories per serving. Szechuan string beans contain 600 calories per serving. The stir-fried mixed vegetables plate contains 500 calories per serving. Chicken chow mein contains 700 calories per serving. The beef with broccoli contains 900 calories per serving.
Sodium
Sodium content in Chinese food is typically high. The three soups have between 800 to 1,100 mg of sodium per serving. The Szechuan string beans contain a whopping 2,200 mg of sodium per serving. The mixed vegetables have 2,200 mg per serving as well. Chicken chow mean has even more sodium at 2,500 mg per serving. Finally, the beef with broccoli contains 3,200 mg of sodium per serving.
Considerations
The American Heart Association and MayoClinic.com recommends that your sodium intake be limited to 1,500 to 2,000 mg per day. Although food choices such as the string beans and stir-fried veggies are healthier from a caloric standpoint than the chicken chow mean and beef with broccoli, they still contain a high amount of sodium. All of the dishes but the soup exceeds this recommendation. One way to remedy this is to split the meal into two and save the other half for another day. This will cut the sodium and calorie content in half making it easier to balance the rest of your nutritional needs for the day.
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