I'm not a fanatic about "healthy eating" [the definition of which seems to change radically fairly often] ~ I do confess [a] I could lose 10 pounds, [b] I tend to eat at least moderately well at home so that I don't feel guilty if I splurge some when I'm out, and [c] I will never ever ever give up ice cream ~ but this op came as an unhappy surprise to me ~ Sooz

Salon.com / By Riddhi Shah
The Unhealthiest Restaurant Chain in America
This company's most extreme dish has 2,500 calories and 85 grams of fat — and it's not who you think it is.

November 10, 2013 | What’s the fattiest, most heart attack-inducing dish you can get at a restaurant chain in America? It isn’t KFC with its much-talked-about Double Down, or Burger King with its Triple Whopper, and it isn’t even TGIF with its heavily loaded nachos. The most unhealthy restaurant chain dish in America is brought to you by the Cheesecake Factory.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Xtreme Eating Awards, which “reward” the American chain restaurant dishes with the highest calorie, fat and sodium counts, the Cheesecake Factory’s Pasta Carbonara will saddle you with a heaving, gut-busting 2,500 calories and 85 grams of saturated fat. That’s the fat equivalent of four days of heavy-duty meals. If that didn’t shock you into swearing off the chain for at least a year, here’s another analogy: Eating just one plate of Pasta Carbonara at the Cheesecake Factory is like eating five, yes, five Double Downs at KFC.

But there are other surprise winners. At California Pizza Kitchen, the innocuous sounding Pesto Cream Penne is worth 1,350 calories and a whopping 1,920 mg of sodium — almost as much salt as you’d eat in an entire day. The Tostada Pizza, which sounds even healthier with its strips of lettuce, fresh tomato salsa and black beans, racks up an unbelievable 1,680 calories and 3,300 mg of sodium. Perhaps you’d like some unlimited Coke to go with all that sodium?

What’s most striking about the Xtreme Eating Awards is not the calorie count itself — we’d be fools to expect anything less in a land that throws up gems like Arizona’s Heart Attack Grill — it’s the way restaurants have managed to camouflage unhealthy meals as dishes that sound like paragons of healthful deliciousness. Most of us wouldn’t touch a Quarter Pounder with a 10-foot-long fork, but wouldn’t think much of eating P.F. Chang’s Pan Fried Noodles instead (incidentally, 1,820 calories).

As the battle cries against obesity and overeating become shriller than ever, we’ve become adept at crucifying the most easily recognizable offenders — red meat, fried chicken and sugary, fried foods. But our food education is woefully inadequate; many people still don’t know what makes a meal genuinely healthy — or that, for instance, a white-flour pasta slathered in cream sauce is just as bad as a plateful of cheesy fries.

With diners becoming increasingly calorie-conscious, more and more fast-food chains are promoting healthy alternatives on their menus. But as the Pasta Carbonara shows (described in Cheesecake Factory’s menu as “spaghettini with smoked bacon, green peas and garlic-parmesan cream sauce”), what you perceive can sometimes be very far from what you eat.

http://www.alternet.org/food/unhealthiest-restaurant-chain-america

Don't eat at fast-food unless you are truly starving, and even then, just eat a salad.

There's nothing wrong with a DECENT hamburger.

Sometimes salads can be worse for you than a burger because of all the dressing and add ons.

Well, we don't separate the two. The salad comes on the burger. The only thing that might be considered "unhealthy" is the BBQ sauce.

I confess: a good burger is still one of my all-time favorite foods ~ but I like it best with only some spicy mustard and maybe some raw or grilled sweet onions [like Vidalia] ~ yummm!

Sooz

That's reasonably healthy anyway sooz (as long as you don't put them on the sickly confectionary that MacDonalds calls "buns".

When I do eat a hamburger, I don't eat the buns (bread) [I try to stick to a low carb diet]. I ask them to wrap the hamburger in lettuce.

I eat out all the time. My close to 96 year old mother ate a cheeseburger happy meal from McDonald's for lunch every day for about 10 years. Now she eats three eggs for breakfast with cereal, canned peaches, and whole milk.

The restaurant cream dishes are what kill you with calories. The fettucini alfredos and pasta carbonaras. They are bad for you if you make them at home, too.

Who doesn't like an alfredo every once in awhile? We love the flavor but not the texture or calorie count so when I make it at home I "cut" it with 1 cup of dry white wine. Cheap vermouth does the trick nicely. Also fill it out by adding broccoli and not using as much pasta. Toss it with chicken or shrimp- making it more filling and also cutting down on the amount of pasta you consume.

And, who the hell would think a place called CHEESECAKE FACTORY would not be high calorie high fat food?

I've been to three Cheesecake Factory-s. All good. One up in Cambridge, MA; one in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, and just recently in Seattle.

The Caesar Salad with chicken at the Cheesecake Factory is 1510 calories; more than their grilled ribeye at 1340.

It's a good thing the only thing I had there was Strawberry Cheesecake with a diet coke totaling 730 calories.

http://www.cheesecakefactorynutrition.c ... -chart.php?

I think it is significant that we can discuss what we should and should not eat when so many people throughout history were at times forced to question if they would eat at all. And there are those asking that question today.

So yes, we should indeed strive to eat healthy, but first appreciate the fact that we have choices to make. We can be grateful for that hamburger and even more so for fresh vegetables. Most of the people that have lived were grateful to simply have food.

People throughout history didn't eat processed food and weren't overweight.

These are the things I avoid to maintain a low-carb diet:

1) White flour (bread, tortillas, chips, etc.)
2) Potatoes
3) Pasta
4) Sugar

Chicken is good to eat, beef on occasion.
Drinks: Water, tea, or coffee. No soda.

For more info, look into the Atkins Diet.

Well, I'm on a high protein, high energy and low salt (uggg) diet, so carbs are my friend.

And given that the staple foods of just about all cultures since the beginning of recorded history have been carbs, and most of those carbs were processed in one way or another, and people "didn't get fat", then its entirely possible that carbohydrates have been given a bad press.

After all, the "navies" who built the British canal system were mostly Irish peasants who had been raised almost exclusively on potatoes.

And big strapping lads they were, to be sure!

Weight is just one component of health anyway.

Diet will always be controversial. The Atkins plan still is.

Women of the previous generation were thinner but many smoked to control their weight and ended up dying of cancer. Think beauty icons Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.

IMO, most of these diets suck.
Moderation is the key, I think.

one word: carrots.

No damn good for me Gramps ... except as flavour.

Thus far all this thread has succeeded in doing is make me hungry.....except for the carrots. Carrots should be used for whacking bunnies and nothing else.

We've always considered carrot cake to be a vegetable.

LOL, jeanne ~ I once convinced the 6yo daughter of a neighbor that chocolate is one of the major food groups ~ it made her dad crazy when she started wanting chocolate at every meal ~

jim, try this "carrot recipe" from my sister: slice carrots [or use "baby" carrots]; steam for a few minutes in microwave; drain water, drizzle on honey and cinnamon [or brown sugar] ~ yummm!

Sooz

lol Jeanne! I eat where I want, when I want and what I want. I don't worry too much about it. That way I never feel deprived. Life is short. Eat dessert first.

oskar is right. Moderation and portion control. I used to think I had to eat the entire hamburger and all the fries (or whatever I order).........because, dammit, I PAID for them. Not any more. I eat until I'm full and either save the rest for another meal (if there is enough) or throw it out. In fact, I rarely eat fries. Two or three when hubby gets them. I order sweet potato fries if available, or coleslaw or fruit. Other veggies obviously don't exist in Western Canada.

When Hubby was a kid his mom only served three vegetables (I'm thinking the only three she liked): green beans, yellow beans and corn.

I told him that there are other actual good veggies. Fresh corn off the cob is great, but canned corn? I like canned green beans though and rarely ever ate yellow beans. I love lettuce, celery, peas, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, radishes, and cucumbers. I can eat, but do not search out turnips and red beets. I can totally skip the bitter greens.

I really don't care for carrots, gramps. Mother made them the way sooz described with the delicious honey to disguise the flavor. I use the raw ones to hold onion dip.

Kathy you remind me that my mother thought all vegetables came from cans. I was a sophomore in college before I found out about frozen peas from the other girls in the dorm! I knew about fresh corn and green beans and beets because they grew on farms in our area but I knew nothing of frozen vegetables.