The Worst Artery Cloggers in America

By: Brie Cadman ( Little_person View Profile)

Worst Mash-Up: Sonic Drive-in Fritos Chili Pie

940 calories for chili? Well, I guess if you make it with Fritos chips and throw in a piecrust, anything is possible.

A better bet: A bowl of chili—without the Fritos.

Worst Appetizer: Chili’s Awesome Blossom

Chili’s is all sorts of wrong. The one and only time I ate there, I almost dove over the table and made the waitress give me my money back, it was so bad. It’s clear now I was just in a salt and sugar-induced rage. Even with their crappy food laden with sodium, fat, and emulsifiers, you’ve got to admire them. How they turned a simple onion into a day’s worth of calories and three days worth of fat is a miracle of food science.

A better bet: Skip the appetizer. Your meal will most certainly contain more calories, fat, and carbs than you’ll need for a week or so.

Smallest Slice of Sin: Baker’s Square Chocolate Caramel Peanut Crunch Pie

A day’s worth of saturated fat in a slice of pie. Yowsers.

A better bet: Apple pie. At least there’s fruit in it.

Worst Hot Dog: Wienershnitzel Pastrami Dog

It’s scary to top a hot dog with pastrami; it’s even scarier to think there is someone in this world that eats it. (Though it has been years since I’ve seen a Wienershnitzel.)

A better bet: Turkey Mustard Dog—only has 240 calories, and no weird red meat hanging off the sides.

Worst Onion Ring: White Castle Home-Style Onion Rings

Rings are supposed to accompany a main meal, but this snack has enough calories and fat to hold its own. Though some major fast food chains have made the move to rid their food of trans fats, the type of fat that really has it in for your heart, White Castle apparently hasn’t—30 grams of the bad stuff.

A better bet: Take a white castle slider and throw it across a room. Those things fly!

Truly, this is the short list of bad items at America’s popular restaurants; the long list would encompass most of their menus. Eating at a Chili’s, Outback, or any big fast food or chain restaurant should come with some sort of warning sign, a prescription for high blood pressure medication, a membership at a gym, or at the very least, prominently displayed nutritional information. Now that would be hard to stomach.

(Info Sources: CalorieKing.com, Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko)

First published February 2008

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Comments

By the way, I do agree with Biker Mania's comments. I know of several athletes, myself included, that absolutely love Chipotle and other burrito places. The ingredients are FRESH, which is very important, and loaded with great stuff. Just go easy on the cheese and it's a great meal full of nutrition. I also know of several professional athletes that have a pre-game ritual of eating a burrito (just look it up on Google). The good thing about being an athlete is pretty much the ability to eat just about as much as you want, because you'll need every calorie to keep you going. Despite what most people think, calories are good. Without 'em we die - not to mention eating a 5 times a day and staying active helps to boost your metabolism. The problem is when we eat TOO many calories and DON'T do anything to BURN them off. Laziness is the main cause of obesity.

Great article but I must say....It all looks yummy to me! I'm from the South so we fry everything doesn't move fast enough. LOL

I enjoyed reading this article. It is a good start to create change in the American diet.

What a GREAT article. Thank you Brie Cadman. The information is sadly amazing and the commentary is hilarious.

I was kind of surprised this one wasn't on the list: P.F. Chang's China Bistro has a dessert called: The Great Wall of Chocolate. It is described as: "Six layers of rich chocolate cake frosted with semi-sweet chocolate chips and served with raspberry sauce." It is 2,240 calories a slice. What's worse is that dessert is intended to to follow one of their meals - the majority of which hover around 1,100 calories. Yikes. Prepare to be astonished: http://www.pfchangs.com/cuisine/menu_main.aspx

Great article but I must say....It all looks yummy to me! I'm from the South so we fry everything doesn't move fast enough. LOL

I enjoyed reading this article. It is a good start to create change in the American diet.

What a GREAT article. Thank you Brie Cadman. The information is sadly amazing and the commentary is hilarious.

Great write up, just a note, I am from Australia (came here 12 months ago) and Australians do not eat Cheese Fries, Outback is not representative of Australian cuisine. I didn't know people would put liquid cheese on fries (chips) and was shocked to see that the USA even has liquid cheese!

Thanks for the challenge, I'll have to eat all this in one hour...and put it on youtube.

Um... as far as Chipotle is concerned, I personally know many bikers and other athletes who are always seeking top performance. In fact one of my friends beat floyd landis in an XC race the other week. If you don't know biking, floyd landis 'won' the last Tour de France. And they all eat at Chipotle. My brother is in one of the most rigorous physical training regiments and eats there 5-8 times a week. Sometimes he'll have one before practice and one after. And really? Of all the nasty shit we eat you think that a burrito mostly comprised of rice and beans is in the top ten? not fish and chips? not grits? not twinkies? So I'd have to say that NO, it is not ironic that they sponsor a biking team. I think it is smart. Its carbo-loading combined with protein for recovery. Honestly

I agree with Kimberly. The "American" diet is bad because of the live fast and die young mentality that accompanies it. I regularly eat at the Outback and have no fears of the Bloomin Onion or Aussie Cheese Fries b/c my diet is balanced and I grew up with daily/weekly nutritional goals as a child. Nutrition starts at home and Anything You Order At Any Restaurant Will Likely Be Bad For You. Has anybody tried the "Baconator" at Wendy's??? It is delicious and will give you a great night's sleep after you eat it!

Keep in mind not everyone can survive on the average 2,000 calories per day. I alone need over 3,000 calories just to MAINTAIN my current body weight (that's with no activities). So add in a healthy, active lifestyle and I'm consuming about 3,500 calories a day and I'm no fatty. I've kept my metabolism high by eating regularly and staying active. Eating some of these foods would have little effect on my weight, but the high amounts of sodium and saturated fats are what's the real problem. Always know your own personal limits - get with a personal trainer if you need to and have them write up an active diet plan and your caloric limits. Though these foods are harmful if eaten regularly, they are also good rewards every once in awhile to keep food as a friend and not the enemy. Mmm...

If you want to save money, just go on the fast food diet - 2 bucks for a cheeseburger that will fulfill your entire caloric needs for the day! That would almost be impressive if it weren't so disgusting! I honestly think that the marketers that think up these new food ideas probably just sit back and laugh, wondering how many ridiculously fattening things they can come up with that people will still put into their bodies.

Of course, the most important thing here is to maintain a healthy view of the food itself: it isn't a terrible thing or something to be avoided, but it is important to be aware of information like this, and to be responsible about what you eat. It's perfectly okay to eat an Awesome Blossom once in a while, you don't need a gym membership, as long as it's just once in a while. Eat healthy most of the time, eat happy fatty food once in a while, and relax about your food. Stressing over it tends to make it a bigger and more negative presence in your life than it needs to be.

Don't blame Australians for Outback Steakhouse. NONE of that is Australian. We don't have cheese fries, we don't have Ranch dressing, and Brownies are 100% American. (Also, we don't put shrimp on the barbie. They're called prawns and nobody BBQs them. Gross. I hate our tourist ads).

This was painful. These are all things I love to eat at least once a month. I walk two miles a day, eat oat meal 3 mornings to control cholesterol, steamed rice twice to control acid reflux, use Beano if concerned about gas and eat mostly fruits and salads for dinner. I have lost 68 pound and am now in the right weight range for my build and age. Since I went to the meal time changes my blood work would be the envy of many athletes. I found the best way to control it all is not to eat out more than four or five meals per week. Then, as a gourmet cook, I cook things with balanced side dishes much as the Asians do. In this way you can afford to sin now and then. Consider if you will a baked "chicken fried steak". It will have the same apeal as the fried version but with less fat. If you eat too much rice you can balance that with cucumbers and onions in a vinegar. Balance is the key. I am 60 and in better shape than most people half my age. I loved the article but these do not be nonos,

Re: Just Wrong, Mate: Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries Hot chips in Australia are a very popular fast food. Not that healthy but I dont know of anyone who sells chips with eggs and bacon ?? If it sells in USA it must mean there's a demand for that sort of crappy food over there... That's pretty sad !

I just want to note that those fries (known as hot chips in Australia) from the Outback Steakhouse are by no means Australian. The only way to eat hot chips in Australia is with some salt and vinegar. Unfortunately those fries are a dish marketed to American tastes.

It should be law that all restaurants must reveal their nutrition information to customers. While it is the choice of the person when they eat at these places, they should really have ability to see what they are eating. We don't eat anything that is processed if we can help it. We don't measure calories or carbs and we are still losing weight and are healthy because we eat healthy nutritious REAL food.

Did my comment get deleted because I'm correct? I'll assume so.

What is the big deal? These restaurants are giving consumers nothing less than what they demand. If people didn't want to eat these things, then they would not buy them, nor generate the demand for them. I am willing to say that I have eaten almost all of the things on this list. And I am proud of it! Do I blame the restaurants for any of my health issues? NO! Why? Because I take the initiative and partake in rigorous physical exercise three times a week. There is a reason that I am 6' and only 140 lbs. My friends comment on how great it is that I can eat the stuff on this list and not become obese. I get off my lazy ass and do something about it. My girlfriend is exactly the same. It isn't a restaurants job to watch what you eat and keep you healthy. That's your own job, and they shouldn't be blamed if you're too darn lazy or stupid to exercise or eat healthy.

I'm reading great book related to this story, it's called "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan. The book has three sections: The first is about the western diet being radically altered by the philosophy of "nutritionism", a term coined in 2002 by a nutritionist. Nutritionism: viewing our food in reductionist terms. Instead of looking at whole foods, we focus too tightly on specific nutrients like carbs, protein, fat. We exclude other important and unknown relationships between nutrients resulting in many negative effects on our relationship with food. The second part focuses on the "western diseases", obesity, heart attacks and cancer and their relationship to the altered food stuffs we now eat. The third part focuses on trying to escape nutritionism and the western diet. The focus for our food should be on the food itself and not the nutrients. His rule:"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". "Food" is defined as whole foods that grow naturally.

I'm just sad.

It's too bad, really, because those Aussie cheese fries are fricking amazing!

Yuck. I'm never eating out again!

Oh my gosh, that was fricking hysterical! And I LOVE the awesome blossom. Not anymore! Please write more....maybe add in Arby's and McDonalds. And what Gigi says below is so true. Why do you think low income people tend to be so fat? McD's is now offering McNuggets for 25 cents each! I'm trying to eat healthier, but it's more expensive. And that's in the midwest! In San Fran, where my sis is, you pay double what I pay.

Fast food loaded with processed ingredients, rancid vegetable oils, and trans fats makes us fat. It also shuts off your appestat so you want more of it than if you ate GREAT TASTING and GOOD FOR YOU nutritionally dense, full fat, certified organic food (See: "The Politics of Bingeing" and "The Addicting of America"). If you want to eat it, by all means do, but pay the piper of diabetes, cancer and heart disease 20 years down the line. I eat 3000 calories a day of wonderful food for my unique set of genes. If I ate this "great" crap, I'd puke. The food is cheap to make, you get a shit load of it on your plate, you're happy and you'll die a slow, miserable decidedly unhappy death. However, it is one's choice, and believe me, these "food" makers hope you'll keep choosing it. When you do, they laugh all the way to the bank while 300,000 Americans die of diseases directly related to what they CHOOSE to put in their mouths. Good job Brie!!!

My God, Oh God! The supreme being has a twisted sense of humor. Well, I've eaten everything you listed more than once, and damn, it sure was tasty good. Freewill baby! Ain't it a bitchin' pain in the ass. I guess it's a matter of choice how you want to go out when it's time to meet the Maker. I rather be happy and full rather than eating healthy and pissed off the whole time. What's next? I bet you're going say smoking cigars is bad for me...well, I already know that. I remember an old song my Grandpa use to sing around the house, dating back to the early 1900's, "A woman is just a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke!". He smoked King Edward cigars for 65 years. He died a very happy old man.

It's so sad how fast food franchises in general tend to have the most unhealthy, yet inexpensive food. I often will spend twice as much on lunch just to get something that's healthy, delicious, and fulfilling at the same time. Healthy, convenient meals too often are priced out of range of many folks, which is a shame in this country.

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