The Unhealthiest Salad On Panera's Menu

Of all the many fast-casual dining chains you can stop by for a good meal on the go, Panera Bread ranks among the best. Although it's renowned for its selection of sandwiches, not everything at the eatery comes served between two pieces of fluffy bread. Panera offers multiple soups and sides plus an impressive array of salad options. Packed with various vegetables and flavorful toppings, the salads can provide a hearty meal. However, if you're choosing one specifically for health or dietary reasons, you may want to steer clear of the Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken — arguably, the unhealthiest salad on the menu.

The salad features a base of mixed greens, along with crisp romaine and lettuce, and toppings that include grape tomatoes, pickled red onions, fresh avocado, applewood smoked bacon, a hard-boiled egg and slices of white meat grilled chicken. It's all tossed in Green Goddess dressing, a creamy, herbaceous blend of mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, basil pesto, Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar.

While all of that certainly sounds delicious, folks watching their cholesterol levels should note that out of all the salads available at Panera, a whole order of the Green Goddess Cobb contains the highest amount — 300 milligrams, to be exact. Additionally, this pick contains sodium levels on the higher end of the salad spectrum at the chain, with 1,180 milligrams in a whole serving. For context, government guidelines recommended keeping sodium intake below 2,300 milligrams per day

When it comes to the Green Goddess Salad with grilled chicken, the higher cholesterol levels may be due to the inclusion of ingredients like egg and bacon. On the flip side, these very same toppings, along with the grilled chicken, are what makes this salad the one with the highest amount of protein than any other salad on the menu. A whole serving of the dish supplies a whopping 43 grams of protein. So, while this hearty pick may not be the best choice for people who wish to limit their cholesterol and sodium intake, it may have upsides for others.

Though we can all agree that what constitutes an "unhealthy" dish for some is not necessarily the case for everyone, there are a few other salads on the Panera menu that guests on special diets may want to avoid. If carbohydrates are a concern, you would want to skip the Balsamic Chicken Greens with Grains salad, which contains 47 grams of carbs per bowl due to its farro and rice blend. Following that would be the Mediterranean Chicken Greens with Grains salad that has 42 grams of carbs. Want to avoid a sugar spike at lunchtime? Then we suggest crossing the Fuji Apple Chicken salad off your list; with 22 grams of sugar per bowl, it has the highest amount of all Panera's salad offerings.