The Worst 'Healthy' Foods In America
By David Zinczenko, with Matt Goulding
#6: Worst ?Healthy? Smoothie
#5: Worst ?Healthy? Burger
#2: Worst ?Healthy? Seafood Entr?e
Coming soon to chain restaurants nationwide: Calorie counts on chain restaurant menus and menu boards. To us at Eat This, Not That!, this particular provision couldn't have come soon enough. Case in point: Any of the menu items listed below.
The truth is that it can be nearly impossible to distinguish between a healthy menu choice, and a menu choice that sounds healthy but will actually add hundreds of extra and unnecessary calories to your diet?and potentially saddle you with an extra pound or two every month. You may care about your health and try your hardest to eat conscientiously, but when restaurants offer salads that exceed 1,500 calories and seemingly harmless seafood dishes flirt with 2,000 calories, all that hard work goes to waste?and to your waistline. In researching our newest book, Drink This, Not That!, we discovered the 6 worst ?healthy? food offenders. Make the smart swaps listed below, though, and you can lose a few pounds every week?effortlessly?and without ever dieting again.
#6: Worst ?Healthy? SmoothieSmoothie King Skinny Cranberry Supreme (40 oz)
908 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
146 g sugars
It's hard to pick a ?worst? thing when it comes to this drinkable disaster. First, Smoothie King boasts that this drink's function is to help you ?Stay Healthy??but with as much sugar as in 14 glazed doughnuts and nearly half your day's worth of calories, it's clear that this beverage is little more than liquefied sweetener. Second, Smoothie King allows patrons to opt to make their beverages ?Skinny,? meaning they'll leave out the turbinado sweetener. But don't be fooled by the false advertising: Downing this drink is likely to do anything BUT make you skinny.
Drink This Instead!
Skinny Pineapple Pleasure (20 oz)
180 calories
0 g fat
39 g sugars
#5: Worst ?Healthy? BurgerRuby Tuesday Avocado Turkey Burger
1,234 calories
81 g fat
2,961 mg sodium
Turkey often has an undeserved health food reputation. Take turkey bacon, for instance: Most people believe a strip of turkey bacon is better for you than the pork equivalent. But most people are wrong; both strips are roughly 35 calories, and turkey bacon usually comes with more sodium than the oinking variety. (That's why you MUST check labels and use any other tools and guides at your disposal.) Remember this the next time you're aching for a juicy burger, but want to keep it healthy: Turkey burgers are often just as bad, if not worse, than regular burgers. When at Ruby Tuesday, skip the burgers altogether and order the Cowboy Sirloin for your protein fix instead.
Eat This Instead!
Cowboy Sirloin
658 calories
31 g fat
1,395 mg sodium
#4: Worst ?Healthy? Chicken Entr?e
Outback Steakhouse Alice Springs Chicken
1,303 calories
94 g fat
2,146 mg sodium
If you read our list of 30 Worst Chicken Dishes in America, you'd know by now that just because a plate has chicken on it doesn't mean the meal is good for you. This dish is a classic example of a reasonable, lean protein dish gone afowl. It has well over half your day's caloric allotment, plus nearly a full day's worth of sodium. Stick with the Grilled Chicken with seasonal veggies, instead.
Eat This Instead!
Grilled Chicken on the Barbie & Fresh Seasonal Veggies
587 calories
26 g fat
1,356 mg sodium
#3: Worst Salad in America
California Pizza Kitchen Waldorf Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing (full)
1,570 calories
30 g saturated fat
2,082 mg sodium
Remember when salads were a diet food? Forget that mindset, at least when you?re eating out. CPK used to be home to the worst salad in America, the Thai Crunch Salad, which originally rang in at over 2,000 calories. The good news is that as a result of all the attention they downgraded that leafy monstrosity (to a ?mere? 1,300-something calories, but still). The bad news, of course, is that there's still a number of hulking salads on the menu. Like the Waldorf Chicken with Blue Cheese Dressing, for instance. Three-quarters of your day's calories?in a dish that's supposed to be good for you. Blame the dressing, obviously, and the piled on extras that are drowning in it.
Eat This Instead!
Moroccan Chicken Salad, Half
412 calories
4 g saturated fat
309 mg sodium
#2: Worst ?Healthy? Seafood Entr?eCulver?s North Atlantic Cod Filet Dinner (3 pieces)
2,121 calories
134 g fat (20 g saturated, 2 g trans)
2,568 mg sodium
Fish is healthy, right? Not if Culver?s has anything to do with it. For starters, nearly every single item on the menu is fried, which automatically adds extra caloric heft. But seriously?how is such a disastrous plate concocted? First, take three breaded, fried cod filets?870 calories. Add cole slaw (350 calories) and Tartar sauce (376), a dinner roll with butter (140 calories) and Crinkle Cut fries (385 calories). Bingo.
Eat This Instead!
Walleye Filet Sandwich
653 calories
38 g fat (7 g saturated, 1 g trans)
1,169 mg sodium
#1: The Worst ?Healthy? Food in America
Cheesecake Factory Bistro Shrimp Pasta
2,819 calories
77 g saturated fat (Yes, four days' worth!)
1,008 mg sodium
It's hard to say what's the most shocking part of this dish?the fact that it has nearly one and a half times your daily caloric allotment, or the fact that it somehow manages to keep the sodium count at a reasonable level, in spite of its monstrous proportions. This is the absolute worst dish on the worst menu in America, no small feat considering that it's surrounded by other plates that surge past the 2,000-calorie limit. Forget the fact that it has shrimp in it. There is nothing nutritionally redeeming about this platter.
Eat This Instead!
Grilled Mahi Mahi
358 calories
4 g saturated fat
441 mg sodium
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