7 gut-busting restaurant dishes to avoid
The nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest announced the “winners†of its Xtreme Eating Awards, handed to restaurant-chain dishes with off-the-chart calories and saturated fat.
Some are obvious awardees, such as a milkshake that actually contains a slice of apple pie. But pasta with shrimp, arugula, tomatoes and mushrooms? How bad could that be? Pretty bad, it turns out.
Following are some of the dishes that topped this year’s list of awardees, and the amount of calories and saturated fat that put them there. The CSPI notes that a typical adult should consume about 2,000 calories and a maximum of 20 grams of saturated fat and 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day; in addition, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends consuming no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar for women and 9 teaspoons for men.
IHOP’s Country Fried Steak & Eggs combo includes a deep-fried steak with gravy, two fried eggs, deep-fried potatoes and two buttermilk pancakes. It has 1,760 calories, 23 grams of saturated fat, 3,720 milligrams of sodium and 11 teaspoons of added sugar.
Johnny Rockets’ Bacon Cheddar Double Burger -- with two one-third-pound beef patties, four slices of cheddar cheese, four strips of bacon and a “special†sauce -- has 1,770 calories, 50 grams of saturated fat, and 2,380 milligrams of sodium. And the Big Apple Shake — a milkshake with a slice of apple pie in it — has 1,140 calories, 37 grams of saturated fat and about 13 teaspoons of added sugar.
Uno Chicago Grill’s Deep Dish Macaroni & 3-Cheese has 4 cups of pasta, cheddar, Parmesan and Romano cheeses, alfredo sauce (made with cream, cheese, rendered chicken fat and butter) a crushed Ritz cracker topping. That’s 1,980 calories, 71 grams of saturated fat and 3,110 mg of sodium.
Cheesecake Factory’s Bistro Shrimp Pasta, with crispy battered shrimp, mushrooms, tomato, arugula and basil-garlic-lemon cream sauce, has 3,120 calories and 89 grams of saturated fat.
Smoothie King’s Peanut Power Plus Grape Smoothie -- which includes peanut butter, banana, sugar and grape juice -- has 1,460 calories and 22 teaspoons of added sugar in a 40-ounce large size.
Maggiano’s Little Italy’s Chocolate Zuccotto Cake has 1,820 calories, 62 grams of saturated fat and 26 teaspoons of added sugar.
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