I received an email from one of our readers Sam who thought I needed to know about the worst meal choices in America. Having recently run a post called DEATH ON A NAPKIN: LICK THEM FINGERS GOOD that detailed the horrible fast food caloric, fat and sodium content, I thought I had found the worst of the worst.
Not so. CLAIM JUMPER RESTAURANTS is the place to go for the meal to die for. Really!
Beef Back Ribs 4301 Calories, 156 g Saturated Fat, 750 mg Cholesterol, 7623 mg sodium
Add to that a Baked Potato 440 calories, 4357 mg sodium
And a Brownie Finale for dessert at 2154 calories, 38 g saturated fat, 1213 mg sodium
And you have…. 6895 calories, 194 g Saturated Fat, 13,193 mg sodium….
RDA for these items is…
Calories about 2,000 (depends on your size)
Saturated Fat 20g
Sodium 2300 mg max
Cholesterol 300 mg
Congratulations – you ate about 6 days worth of sodium, 10 days worth of saturated fat, 4 days worth of calories and 3 days worth of cholesterol…
….and you did it in ONE MEAL, not including the calories in all that soda or alcohol you will be drinking.
This is truly the meal to die for. You can see their nutritional charts HERE or the prettier version HERE .
So why are we not demanding big warning labels on the side of these restaurants. WARNING: EATING HERE WILL KILL YOU?
Thanks for the email Sam. I’m grabbing a carrot and some hummus now.
MisterWriter
4 comments:
Michael Pollan. An author worth reading. I've said it once, and I've said it twice. You won't waste a minute on his books!
Eating healthy is fun and tasty and it would do our world good if more parents understood the food choice consequences to their children's lifelong health. Sadly, children don't have much say in the matter. I try my best for my daughter and hope to change the world if only in some small way. We've got to encourage healthier eating, someone, somewhere, must take a stand!
Mister, I bet you'd make a wonderful nanny. Fat American jokes, wow that's new. What next? How about the stinky French, and the British with bad teeth British?
Anon 6:42am: Your comment was just plain stupid. This is NOT a fat American joke - this is a DISEASE that we compound by the ignorance and greed that companies pandering for a quick buck are permitted to do. We have warning labels on everything else - this represents a major health threat.
As for Stinky French - the French culture was such that bathing was something that happened infrequently. The younger generation are more savvy about such things. That too is a choice. As for the British teeth, that is a genetic trait that was compounded by poor oral hygiene in the middle ages on, something the current generation of Brits knows lots about.
As for the nanny comment - you lost me on that one. Given the data regarding the content of sodium and fat and calories in these foods, that you would simply target me for making a fat joke shows me you don't read the content. Look around the country - it is not funny. I cringe when I see kids like the one in the photo - that will be a short life riddle with health problems. Of course some moron will just say "he's big boned." I know many overweight people and I do not think they think it is funny either. It is, however, a fact, and like many Americans I have battled weight gain all my adult life because of choices in diet, exercise and beverage consumption. It is difficult when societal attitudes focus on the BIG GULP being a better value than 6 oz of a beverage that does nothing positive for your body. I watch my weight. One day eating out and I see it in my mid section. I try to eat low or no fat, high fiber, lots of water, but still enjoy the chocolate. If it is gooey then I likely will avoid it.
Likewise, go to Europe and eat a sandwich and you get two thin slices of bread a thin slice of meat, thin lettuce and thinly sliced tomato. In the US it is considered a waste of your time if you don't need a book press to squish the sandwich flat enough to take a bite, and equally a waste of time if it does not dribble sauces out the sides as you do so. That's why we have the quadruple burger in a package that is over five to six inches high.
I'm guessing your comment was based on your own BMI. Or just trying to irritate me. Either way, the problem is your own, even though I do appreciate your reading the piece. People need to stop accepting that fat is a lifestyle. People need to stop the crap about being fat and happy. That's like saying you can be dead and happy. A happy fat person is one who has given up the struggle to lose it and must find peace in order to not go nuts about it. It does not justify it, it should never make it acceptable and it should not make it normal. And there is just no arguing those points. And these people can be the sweetest, nicest people in the world. It is an addiction, like drugs. Food is a drug.
I like having the caloric and nutritional specifications readily available when I dine at a restaurant. We were out the other day at BJ’s at the mall. In the back of their menu they have the nutritional values for everything that they serve. The meal that I had chosen was more than 1400 calories. I thought to myself, there is no way that I was going to sit there and eat 1400 calories for lunch. I simply chose something else. The food that I chose was fine. I didn’t miss the food that was my first choice, and instead of consuming more than 1400 calories, I consumed just over 600 calories. A little education goes a long way, if we care.
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