ginseng

I went to Panera Bread  and ordered a strawberry smoothie and an orange scone. It was very yummy. Panera is one of my favorite places to go out to eat. This man in line in front of me randomly asked me why I liked to go there. I told him that it seems like it is more healthy that other fast food alternatives.

That night I had a weird headache that ran down one side of my face. Since I don’t usually get headaches, I can normally track them. But this time I couldn’t…until the next day.

Same Panera Bread…ordered a strawberry smoothie again. And as I was waiting for them to make it, I looked up and saw a new sign.

“Strawberry Smoothie now with Ginseng”

So I asked the smoothie maker if the strawberry smoothies always had ginseng and he said no. They had changed the recipe and started serving the new one yesterday.

This lead me to go home and check out the ingredients for some of my favorite Panera menu items online. Happy to report that the cinnamon crunch bagels are still aok for me. But I was surprised that many of the menu items are not all that natural/preservative and dye free. Thank heaven there is now a Black Cherry Smoothie without ginseng.  And I still think that Panera is probably more healthy that other fast food alternatives…but I am mourning the Strawberry Smoothie because it was a personal favorite.