Xtreme Eating Awards - Who Is The Winner?

In January this year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest announced the winners for their 2013 Xtreme Eating Awards.

As you might expect, the list included some phenomenal dishes. Not phenomenal in a good way though. While they might taste great, these are the highest calorie, ultimate worst diet foods you can possibly choose when out and about.

These dishes aren’t particularly about “hidden calories” and this article won’t expose the secret foods that are wrecking your diet. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that these dishes don’t even masquerade as being remotely heavy. Just reading about them could cause you to pack on a couple of pounds.

Let’s take a look at the main offenders.

Johnny Rockets’ Bacon Double Cheddar

This burger makes a McDonalds Big Mac seem like a health food. It has over three times the calories of a McDonalds quarter pounder with cheese, along with a staggering 50 grams of saturated fat and pretty much your entire day’s recommend allowance for salt.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with including moderate amounts of saturated fat and salt in your diet, but this certainly takes it to the extreme.

The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory gets two mentions in this year’s list, so you may as well throw the whole restaurant into the mix. Their bistro shrimp pasta has 3,120 calories (more than any other dish on the menu – even more than any type of cheesecake!) All that butter and cream in the sauce add up too, coming in at 89 grams of saturated fat. You could have almost two Johnny Rocket burgers for that!

If you thought KFC was bad, get a load of the crispy chicken costoletta, also on the menu. It actually outdoes a 12-piece KFC bucket by around 60 calories. That’s not to say your KFC bucket is now a healthy option, but maybe it doesn’t seem quite so bad in comparison.

Smoothie King

Think smoothies are healthy? Think again.

Even a traditional fruit smoothie can be loaded with sugar, but the peanut power plus grape smoothie from Smoothie King takes the plaudits as the highest calorie beverage on the list. A whopping 1,460 calories and the equivalent of 22 teaspoons of sugar go into this bad boy.

Big Apple Shake

Johnny Rockets catches up with the Cheesecake Factory here, with its second entry on the list. Its Big Apple shake fares slightly better than the peanut power, with 1,140 calories and 13 teaspoons of added sugar, but it’s still one to avoid. With the main ingredients being apple pie and ice cream though, what do you expect?

IHOP Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?

Not if you start your morning with this calorie bomb from IHOP. There’s nothing wrong with steak and eggs for a protein packed, lower carb breakfast that’ll keep you feeling full ‘til lunchtime. A well-cooked piece of lean steak along with a couple of poached or dry fried eggs is great, but that’s not the way IHOP do things. Their country-fried steak and eggs comes with a side of atherosclerosis, seeing as it contains 1,760 calories – pretty much an entire day’s calories for a sedentary woman.

Veal Porterhouse

A veal steak with a few potatoes sounds like a perfectly healthy meal, comprising both good quality protein and fibrous carbs. However, if you’re getting you’re veal steak and potatoes from Maggiano’s Little Italy, you’ll be wolfing down 2,710 calories, along with 3,700 milligrams of sodium – that’s about 9 grams of salt.

It’s impossible to say which one of these dishes is worst. They all have huge downsides, and unfortunately no one in particular stands out as being any better than the others.

Less Xtreme Eating Alternatives

All these dishes might make you salivate just from the descriptions, and in theory you can eat anything you like when dieting, provided it fits into your calorie requirements and you keep treats like this to a minimum.

However, for most folks, making even a half serving of any of these fit into your diet is going to provide a serious challenge. Therefore, you’re better off skipping them entirely and looking for healthier options instead.

The temptation may be to drastically scale back your calories for a few days before going out, fast for the whole day, binge on one of the above in the evening, then starve yourself for another few days. While the calories may balance out in the end, it’s not a good idea. This is disordered eating, and it plays havoc with your metabolism.

Instead, look for ways you can make healthier versions of these dishes.

Burgers

Forget Johnny Rockets or McDonalds burgers and opt instead for a lean beef burger on a whole-wheat bun, accompanied by loads of salad and veggies. You can make it more interesting by adding a slice or two of low-fat cheese, a piece of avocado, or some low-carb salsa. Reduce the calorie and carb content even further by swapping out the bun and wrapping your burger in a huge lettuce leaf instead.

Pasta and Fried Chicken

You can easily do better than the Cheesecake Factory’s attempt at pasta. Pasta is pretty carbohydrate-dense, so watch the amount you have. 2 ounces of dry pasta should be enough – just top up on veggies if the serving looks a little small. Switch to whole-wheat penne or fusili and serve it with plenty of lean meats. If you’re after a creamier sauce, use low-fat cheese or crème fraiche, quark or cream cheese along with lots of fresh herbs.

Unfortunately, you can’t really make fried chicken much healthier, though you could make faux fried chicken, by coating raw chicken breasts in olive or coconut oil, a light dusting of oat flour and baking them in the oven. They’ll be far less greasy and far lower in calories.

Smoothies

A shake with apple pie and ice cream is probably out, but try a protein smoothie. Grab a blender and throw in some ice. Add a scoop of whey protein, along with various fruits or veggies, a handful of nuts and some regular milk or almond milk. The higher protein content will keep you feeling fuller for longer and help with building lean muscle and stripping fat.

Breakfast

Have a “healthier” fried breakfast. Grilled steak with poached eggs as mentioned before is an awesome start to your day, or grill some good quality bacon and serve it with a few eggs scrambled in organic butter, tomatoes and mushroom, perhaps with some rye toast on the side.

Veal Porterhouse

Be sensible when choosing your steak and go for a leaner cut. Grill it rather than fry it and serve it with a fresh green salad, rather than potatoes or fries. A good steak shouldn’t need much added to it, so hold the calorie-laden sauces.

These alternatives might not be as extreme as our award winners, but they’re just as tasty, and certainly far more diet-friendly.