The 20 worst foods in America

Have you seen this article? Many of the foods listed are no-brainers (giant sized burger, sugar loaded hotcakes, ), but others are a bit surprising:

Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza – “Downing this “personal” pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino’s Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.”

Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce – “This meal satisfies your calorie requirements for an entire day.”

Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie – “Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milk shake. In fact, this beverage contains as much sugar as 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream.”

So shocking! Granted I have never eaten any of these dishes, but I have eaten at these restaurants in the past.

Here are two other terrifying desserts that we’ve steered clear of after looking up the caloric content on our own:

Cold Stone Creamery Vanilla Shake – Almost 1400 calories and 70 grams of fat. (Their French Vanilla flavor also contains High Fructose Corn Syrup. YUCK!)

Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake (prepackaged) – Once slice contains 800 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat. Enough said. (Their official restaurant site doesn’t post nutritional information, so we assume it’s just as bad, if not worse, since they don’t have to disclose…)

Just a couple more reasons to cook healthily at home. (Luckily, we have a number of fantastic vegan/vegetarian/healthy restaurants nearby. We’re planning on going to one in a couple hours, before we head to our acupressure for labor/partner prenatal yoga class! Should be fun!)

7 thoughts on “The 20 worst foods in America”

  1. mmm I checked the menu on the link to slice of life. those salads sound awesome, especially the sprout one! now I can see how much I am missing by living on the east coast! and I was all impressed with Princeton’s organic and veggie offerings…lol

  2. Hi! While you’re totally right that these are all awful for you, I feel compelled to note that they are all HUGE portions – most of them wouldn’t be all that terrible if you ate a smaller amount (half or less). For example, I’ve gotten about 3 meals out of any pasta dish I’ve ordered at Macaroni Grill (it’s been a really long time since I’ve been there, though). And, I think it’s well documented that eating at home is pretty much always better than eating out, regardless of what you cook (there are exceptions, of course!).

  3. Oy! No wonder we’re all getting fat ~ This is terrible! How could a shake have as much sugar as 2 pts of ice cream? And dinner out portions as much as a whole days worth of calories! We have got to down-size our portion sizes – yikes! It’s amazing — we have to be vigilant and take care of ourselves ~ :o)

    Love,
    Mom

  4. Beth, what a good suggestion! Since I’ve been pregnant I can’t eat a big meal anymore, so we’ve been typically ordering a big salad or healthy appetizer and then splitting a main dish. I think we need to keep doing this in the future. So much more reasonable (price wise too!).

    Restaurants really can be scary. At the grocery store I read every package/ingredient list before I buy anything, but with restaurants you just never know what’s in there. After hearing David’s stories about how much butter or cream or salt is in that dish (oh, is that why it tastes so darn good?!), I really try to order smartly.

    Of course, every now and then it’s fun to splurge. We’re hoping to hit our favorite restaurant in the Napa Valley before the baby gets here… Who needs a babymoon? I’d rather spend it on a really great meal!

  5. It’s like a honeymoon, but instead it’s one last hurrah before the baby gets here. We had been talking about doing a long weekend somewhere here in California at a little b&b or something… but I really doubt we’ll get it together (i.e. that David will be able to convince me to spend $$$ on it).

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