If you are looking to shed a few pounds, you may just want to stay way from The Cheesecake Factory – as it took home the not-so-coveted XXXtreme Eating award from The Center for Science in the Public Interest
Every year the group unveils the most unhealthy meals in America, and this year The Cheesecake Factory had a lot of them:
Bruléed French Toast, which comes in at 2,780 calories, 93 grams of saturated fat (almost a full work week’s worth), 2,230 milligrams of sodium, and 24 teaspoons of sugar. To put that in perspective, you would have to swim laps for 7 hours to burn the meal off.
And it is not just the 200-calorie side of bacon or ham. It’s that largely invisible custard-like filling in the bread, plus the quarter cup of butter-infused syrup. The meal is comparable to eating 14 slices of Aunt Jemima frozen Homestyle French Toast stuffed with 2½ (8 oz.) tubs of Kraft Philadelphia Original Cream Cheese Spread – so, yeah…slightly unhealthy.
The Cheesecake Factory was also singled out for a 2,900-calorie French Toast Napoleon (“Bruléed French Toast Stacked with Strawberries, Pecans and Chantilly Cream”) and Farfalle with Chicken and Roasted Garlic with 2,410 calories and 63 grams of saturated fat (a three-day load) – the same as five single-serve packages of Stouffer’s frozen Classics Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo, each topped with a pat of butter.
Finishing off your meal at The Cheesecake Factoy would not be complete without a Reese’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake. At 1,500 calories, 43 grams of saturated fat, and 21 teaspoons of (mostly) added sugar – you would only have to do aerobics for 4½ hours to burn it off.
Other entrees making the list:
Red Robin’s Monster Meal: 1,670-calorie “Monster” burger plus unlimited 370-calorie servings of fries and a 1,500 calorie Monster Salted Caramel Milkshake.
The entire Monster meal is full of two days’ worth of calories (3,540), 3½ days’ saturated fat (69 grams), and four days’ sodium (6,280 milligrams) – the same as eating seven McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers washed down with a quart of Coke.
Famous Dave’s “The Big Slab” is 1.5 pounds of St. Louis-Style Spareribs. Add to that
a muffin, Famous Fries, and Wilbur (baked) Beans, you’re talking 2,770 calories (more than a day’s worth) and 54 grams of saturated fat.
BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse Small (9″) Signature Deep Dish Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza combines garlic chicken, Applewood smoked bacon, jack and cheddar cheese, red onions, diced tomatoes and a drizzle of ranch – which all adds up to 2,160 calories, 30 grams of saturated fat, and 4,680 milligrams of sodium (three days’ worth).
You can see the entire list here.
Happy dining!
(Top image via Jason Tester Guerrilla Futures / CC) (other images via cspinet.org)
