Health

The Best and Worst Lunches from Corner Bakery Cafe

Photo via iStock.

You’re starving, you want food, and you want it now so you order the most carb-heavy item on the menu. Don’t feel bad—we’ve all been there. But with a little planning, you don’t have to give into temptation and sacrifice a week of healthy eating because of a rumbling stomach! Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best (and worst!) lunch options at Corner Bakery Cafe. Give it a read and remember it next time you head up to the counter to order.

Salads

The Bad: Yes, there is such a thing as an unhealthy salad. Just because you throw leafy veggies at something, doesn’t mean it’s good for your body. The Cafe Chopped Salad looks like a good choice for lunch, though it’s anything but. This meal clocks in at 400 calories, which doesn’t sound too bad, but it contains 1,250 mg of sodium, which is more than half the recommended daily limit. That’s a lot of salt.

The Good: If you’re looking to cut down on carbs and salt, order the Cafe Spinach Sweet Crisp Salad. It’s only 220 calories and has 270 mg of sodium. The one downside of the spinach salad is the high sugar content—19 grams. To combat this, get the salad dressing on the side and use it as sparingly as possible.

Flatbreads

The Bad: Flatbread is a versatile vessel for food. Dip it in hummus for a snack, wrap eggs in it for breakfast or use instead of bread for a lunchtime sandwich. But load it up with too many fatty foods and all those health benefits go out the window. With that said, avoid the Chicken Caesar Grilled Flat. The calorie count is only 330 calories, but almost half of that is from fat, which is way too much.

The Good: Instead, opt for the Southwest Chicken Grilled Flat. It’s 270 calories, and only 70 of those are from fat. Plus, it’s topped with corn and tomato salsa, which help add more fruits and veggies to your diet.

Pasta

The Bad: If you’re craving pasta, be wary of hidden nutritional pitfalls. The Corner Bakery Cafe has Bacon Tomato Mac & Three Cheese, which they describe as “Cavatappi pasta tossed with applewood smoked bacon, diced tomatoes and a blend of three cheeses, topped with toasted bread crumbs.” Sounds mouthwatering, right? Anything with bacon tastes amazing, but we all know it’s not the best for our waistlines. This dish is 610 calories and has 1100 mg of sodium. Yikes.

The Good: If that hasn’t turned you off to pasta for lunch, check out the Cavatappi with Marinara option. “A delicious dish of our cavatappi pasta and vegetarian marinara sauce topped with Parmesan cheese,” it’s only 280 calories and has 460 mg of sodium. Ask for no cheese for an even healthier meal.

Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato

Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato is a freelance science, health, and environment reporter based in Washington, DC, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, NPR, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Newsweek, and Nature.