The Health of It All

Eating Healthier at Fast Food Restaurants : La Madeleine

La Madeleine is a French bakery and café that has mostly located in Texas and across the Southeast and Southwest. The original location has its roots in France, with the first American restaurant opening in 1983. There are now over 80 locations, and as chain food restaurants go it remains closer to its roots of being French than a manufactured restaurant such as Olive Garden (which bears almost no relationship to Italy).

As such, there are some reasonable choices for you to order in their restaurants.

They are a pretty good choice for breakfast. Their quiches come in at over 700 milligrams of sodium but that's not too bad for a chain food restaurant. They do have one of the best oatmeal options with little added sugar and a great variety of healthy oatmeal topping selections.

Their breads do have a fair amount of sodium so that makes sandwiches higher in salt. The best choice is a half sandwich and while this may seem like a cop out, those sandwiches come in at between 400 and 500 calories for a half sandwich - more than enough for lunch.

They also have options for smaller servings of soups and salads alongside the option of ordering only a half sandwich. This might bring you in at moving towards 1,000 milligrams of sodium, yet you can put together a relatively healthy meal by comparison to other chain restaurant choices.

Updated: June 8, 2020