Few of us would consider eating 11 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts in one sitting. But that’s the nutritional equivalent of The Cheesecake Factory’s Cinnamon Roll Pancakes—the 21st menu item from that chain to receive one of the Xtreme Eating Awards that the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest has conferred on America’s restaurant chains since 2007.
Once again, it’s the time of year when we dish out our Xtreme Eating Awards to those restaurant chains that managed to cram unimaginable amounts of calories, sodium, saturated fat, and/or added sugar into their offerings. (And let’s give it up for The Cheesecake Factory, a perennial winner, making it a kind of Meryl Streep for portion distortion.)
Welcome to the 2019 Xtreme Eating Awards!
Two out of three American adults and one out of three children and teens are overweight or obese. Has that led restaurants to slim down their menus? Fat chance!
Our 2019 winners—each with 1,500 to 2,300 calories and at least a day’s worth of sugar, salt, or saturated fat—make the usual 1,000-calorie restaurant fare look sensible. Applause, please!
Welcome to the 2018 Xtreme Eating Awards.
Each of these restaurant items manages to cram in close to a day’s calories, often accompanied by at least a day’s saturated fat, sodium, or added sugar.
That’s not easy. After all, a typical restaurant entrée has “only” about 1,000 calories. That’s one reason why “only” two out of three adults and one out of three children or teens are overweight or obese.
But these dishes go the extra mile...just so more of us can start looking for extra-large-size apparel. Bravo!
No one would think that seven Sausage McMuffins from McDonald’s was an especially virtuous breakfast. Yet that’s the nutritional equivalent of The Cheesecake Factory’s Breakfast Burrito—the “winner” of the 2018 Xtreme Eating Award for the Worst Way to Start the Day. It’s one of two Cheesecake Factory items among the awards issued annually by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest and published in the July/August issue of the group’s Nutrition Action Healthletter.
We were so close. May 5th was the deadline for menus at chain restaurants and elsewhere to post calories, a long seven years after Congress decided that Americans have a right to know what they’re eating.
But less than a week before the deadline, lobbyists for pizza chains (led by Domino’s), convenience stores, and supermarkets convinced the Trump administration not just to delay, but to reopen the rules to weaken them. Sigh.
That’s why we’re honoring Domino’s with the first Xtreme Putting Profits Before Public Health Award. Who cares about the obesity and diabetes epidemics, as long as the cash keeps rolling in to one of the nation’s premier purveyors of white flour and cheese?
