WASHINGTON — Get two different shrimp dishes. Then some shrimp linguine Alfredo. Add a Caesar salad, french fries and a biscuit. Wash the whole thing down with 24-ounce margarita, and don’t share.
That, the Center for Science in the Public Interest says, is the worst meal you can have at a chain restaurant.
The CSPI has released its annual Xtreme Eating Awards, a list of the most heavy, caloric, artery-clogging dishes at chain restaurants across the country. The gem described above is courtesy of Red Lobster’s “Create Your Own Combination” menu, and weighs in at 3,600 calories.
And that’s without a dessert.
The CSPI puts together its list by looking at menus from more than 200 chain restaurants around the country. It sought out the worst offenders to your health, not even blinking at anything that was less than 2,000 calories. Each of the meals on the list is at least a day’s worth of caloric intake.
“Our winners have what it takes…a total disregard for the obesity epidemic and the coming diabetes tsunami. Of course, you can’t blame the restaurants for that. That’d be so unfair,” reports CSPI.
Also on the list are dishes from IHOP (an omelette dish around 2,000 calories), The Cheesecake Factory (2,370-calorie chicken pasta), Sonic (2,020-calorie Pineapple Upside Down Master Blast), and Outback Steakhouse (a-2,400 calorie, prime rib dinner).
The Food and Drug Enforcement Administration finalized rules requiring chain restaurants list calories with their dishes on the menu. Those rules are set to take effect in December.
The full list of offenders can be found at the CSPI website.