The Panera Menu Item We Didn't Expect To Be One Of The Unhealthiest

If there's any fast food place that you can visit for a reasonably healthy meal on the go, it would be Panera Bread. While many fast food places only have a handful of healthy items to choose from, or you have to order it a special way (à la "Fresco style" at Taco Bell), many of Panera Bread's menu items are healthy enough and can be enjoyed without any alterations.

However, if you don't take a close look at any given Panera Bread item's nutritional values, you can easily order something that isn't near as healthy as you may have thought. The Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich is one of these items, with astonishingly high values in some key negative areas that negate the healthy benefits you'd expect from a turkey-forward meal. The three key areas where the 870-calorie Bacon Turkey Bravo fails the healthy test are in its fats, cholesterol, and sodium. Its content of each blows past where a single meal should be.

The Turkey Bravo's worst offender is its sodium content of 2,830 milligrams, which is a murderous 123% of your recommended daily value (considering too much sodium can cause serious blood pressure and heart issues, "murderous" feels apt). Its fats and cholesterol look better in comparison, but they're still dangerously high. The total fats are 42 grams, with 14 of those being saturated fat. That's 54% and 70% your recommended daily value of each, respectively. The sandwiches cholesterol is 155 mg, or 52% your daily value — better, but still not great.

If you must have the Bacon Turkey Bravo, it's best to eat just the half sandwich. This cuts its calories down to 430, its fat and saturated fat to 21 grams (27%) and 7 grams (35%), respectively, its cholesterol to 77 milligrams (25%), and its sodium to 1,415 milligrams (62%). Just remember these sodium levels as you plan the rest of your meals.