Calories and sodium answer different questions
Fresh tomato salsa lists just 25 calories per 4 oz serving, alongside 550 mg sodium. A 2 fl oz serving of chipotle-honey vinaigrette lists 220 calories and 850 mg sodium. These examples show why a low calorie number is not a shortcut for estimating another nutrient.
Our summary reports sodium in milligrams, separate from the macronutrients measured in grams. The ingredient breakdown lets you identify the contributions to your own meal. No universal “healthy” badge is assigned to an ingredient.
Read serving sizes before comparing
The tomato and corn salsas use published 4 oz portions. The green and red tomatillo salsas use 2 fl oz portions. A weight ounce and a fluid ounce measure different things. Comparing the menu portions is useful, but it is not an equal-weight laboratory comparison.
The published standard portions list 260 mg sodium for green salsa and 500 mg for red salsa. Replacing red with green changes the modeled meal sodium by 240 mg if every other selection stays the same. That is an arithmetic comparison of the stated portions, not a personalized recommendation.
Additions accumulate
A meal can contain several sodium contributors at once: a protein, beans, rice, salsa, cheese and a tortilla. Removing one ingredient may change the total, but the total reflects all the selections. Dressing is optional in our salad model so its contribution is visible rather than hidden in a base meal.
White rice and brown rice both list 210 calories per 4 oz in this source edition, while their sodium values are 350 mg and 190 mg. Equal calories can coexist with different sodium values. Use the comparison tool to examine both columns together.
Keep the estimate in perspective
Nutrition labels and restaurant portions have variability. A difference in a published record is useful for comparing modeled meals, while the real meal can contain more or less than the standard portion. The source review date confirms when we inspected the source; it does not mean the underlying recipe was newly measured on that date.
If you have a clinician-prescribed sodium limit or another medical dietary requirement, confirm current information with the restaurant and discuss practical choices with your clinician. This site does not verify an individual order or provide medical nutrition therapy.
Use the same documented ingredients in your own meal.
Put the example to work: open the meal builder, browse ingredient nutrition or compare published portions.
Sources & serving context
Nutrition baseline: official US PDF, internal imprint OCT-2024-US. Reviewed October 29, 2026. Values are rounded and actual servings vary.
Chipotle’s official US nutrition sheet Official allergens & special diet information Our calculation methodology
