The Top 20 Worst Foods In America For Calories

A friend of mine sent me this the other day and I thought it was quite telling about the current state of affairs in the food and restaurant industries:

THE TOP 20 WORST FOODS IN AMERICA FOR CALORIES

20: Worst Fast-Food Chicken Meal - Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips from McDonald's (5 pieces) with creamy Ranch sauce. 830 Calories, 55 grams fat (4.5 trans fat), 48 carbs. Add a large fries and regular soda and this seemingly innocuous chicken meal tops out at 1,710 calories.

19: Worst drink - Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie (30 fl oz). 900 calories, 10 g fat, 183 carbs, 166 g sugar... Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie, MSNBC calls it a milkshake. The beverage contains as much sugar as 8 pints of Ben & Jerry's butter pecan ice cream.

18: Worst supermarket meal - Pepperidge Farm Roasted Chicken Pot Pie (whole pie). 1,020 calories, 64 g fat, 86 g carbs. Label may say this pie serves two, but, who ever divided a small pot pie in half? Once you crack the crust, there will be no stopping.

17: Worst 'healthy' burger - Ruby Tuesday Bella Turkey Burger. 1,145 calories, 71 g fat, 56 g carbs.

16: Worst Mexican entree - Chipotle Mexican Grill Chicken Burrito. 1,179 calories, 47 g fat, 125 g carbs, 2,656 mg sodium.

15: Worst kids' meal - Macaroni Grill Double Macaroni 'n Cheese. 1,210 calories, 62 g fat, 3,450 mg sodium. It's like feeding your kid 1 1/2 boxes of Kraft mac 'n' cheese.

14: Worst sandwich - Quiznos Classic Italian (large). 1,528 calories, 92 g fat, 4,604 mg sodium, 110 g carbs. A large homemade sandwich would more likely provided about 500 calories.

13: Worst salad - On the Border Grande Taco Salad with Taco Beef. 1,450 calories, 102 g fat, 78 g carbs, 2,410 mg sodium. This isn't an anomaly: Five different On the Border salads on the menu contain more than 1,100 calories each.

12: Worst burger - Carl's Jr. (Hardee's on East Coast) Double Six Dollar Burger. 1,520 calories, 111g fat. Carl's Jr. brags it's home to this enormous sandwich, but the restaurant chain also provides convenient nutrition info on its Web site -- so ignorance is no excuse for eating it.

11: Worst steak - Lonestar 20 oz T-bone. 1,540 calories, 124g fat. Add a baked potato and Lonestar's Signature Lettuce Wedge, and this is a 2,700 calorie blowout (Jimmy says: SKIP THE POTATO AND THIS IS AN EXCELLENT MEAL!!!)

10: Worst breakfast - Bob Evans Caramel Banana Pecan Cream Stacked and Stuffed hotcakes. 1,540 calories, 77 g fat (9 g trans fat), 198 g carbs, 109 g sugar. Five Egg McMuffins yield the same caloric cost as this stack of sugar-stuffed flapjacks, which is truly a heavy breakfast, weighing in at a hefty pound and a half.

9: Worst dessert - Chili's Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream. 1,600 calories, 78 g fat, 215 g carbs. Would you eat a Big Mac for dessert? How about three? That's the calorie equivalent of this decadent dish. Clearly, Chili's customers get their money's worth.

8: Worst Chinese entree - P.F. Chang's Pork Lo Mein. 1,820 calories, 127 g fat, 95 g carbs. The fat content in this dish alone provides more than 1,100 calories. And you'd have to eat almost five servings of pasta to match the number of carbs it contains. Now, do you really need five servings of pasta?

7: Worst chicken entree - Chili's Honey Chipotle Crispers with Chipotle Sauce. 2,040 calories, 99 g fat, 240 g carbs. 'Crispers' refers to an extra thick layer of bread crumbs that soak up oil and adds unnecessary calories and carbs to these glorified chicken strips.

6: Worst fish entree - On the Border Dos XX Fish Tacos with Rice and Beans. 2,100 calories, 130 g fat, 169 g carbs, 4,700 mg sodium. Perhaps the most misleadingly named dish in America: A dozen crunchy tacos from Taco Bell will saddle you with fewer calories.

5: Worst pizza - Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza. 2,310 calories, 162 g fat, 123 g carbs, 4,470 mg sodium... Downing this 'personal' pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino's Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.

4: Worst pasta - Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce. 2,430 calories, 128 g fat, 207 g carbs, 5,290 mg sodium. This meal satisfied your calorie requirements for an entire day.

3: Worst nachos - On the Border Stacked Border Nachos. 2,740 calories, 166 g fat, 191 g carbs, 5,280 sodium.

2: Worst starter - Chili's Awesome Blossom. 2,710 calories, 203 g fat, 194 g carbs, 6,360 mg sodium.

1: The worst food in America - Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing. 2,900 calories, 182 g fat, 240 g carbs. Even if you split these 'starters' with three friends, you'll have downed a dinner's worth of calories before you entree arrives.

HUNGRY ANYONE?! :)

If You Support Low-Carb, There's Only One Choice For President

Dr. Michael Eades gets my vote for President of the United States

We've been hearing from all sorts of people over the past year or so who would like to become the next President of the United States of America and all of it has led to this fateful first day of voting set to take place in the great state of Iowa today as they caucus. People like Barack Obama, Rudy Guiliani, Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Fred Thompson have literally poured millions upon millions of dollars into campaign ads in early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other key states to tell us why they are most qualified to lead this great nation for at least the next four years (and if I get one more stinkin' recorded phone call from this dude named Ron Paul, I think I'm gonna scream!).

But I'm here to tell you that NONE of these mainstream party politics candidates even come close to matching the kind of qualities I am looking for in someone who can not just talk the talk about the critical issues, but also will walk the walk. While most of the people running pontificate over issues like illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, terrorism, taxes, Social Security, and the economy (no doubt, all very important issues), no candidate has even come close to being a leader who understands the severity of one of the most critical issues of our day that could quite possibly lead to our downfall someday soon if we don't do something about it.

What is this pressing issue? I'm talking about our HEALTH. Obesity, diabetes, and the continuing struggle to take on preventable disease is taking a toll on this nation economically and socially like nothing else we've ever dealt with before. And now more than ever we need proven, tested, and ready-to-serve-from-day-one leadership from an individual who would bring about great changes in the midst of this socioeconomic crisis.

Today, I nominate Dr. Michael R. Eades, MD for president.

As the unequivocal leader of the newly formed and growing by leaps and bounds Low-carblican High-Fatocrat Party, Dr. Michael Eades is sorely needed to restore sanity into what has become an insane world up there in our nation's capital of Washington, D.C. He is the right leader at the right time for seeing us through this make-or-break period in our nation's history and our future health literally depends on it.

Just think about what an Eades administration would look like:

- No more low-fat diet monopoly from the FDA or USDA
- Follow the lead of the ADA promoting low-carb, too
- New food pyramid will put fat at the bottom and sugar on top
- Stop approving OTC drugs like Alli for weight loss
- No more federal protection for the sugar and grain industry
- Universal gym memberships with Slow-Burn trainers
- School lunches will consist of high-fat, low-carb meals
- Require welfare recipients to choose healthy low-carb foods
- Implement the "No Child Left With A Behind" Act
- Obesity no longer a "disease," it's personality responsibility
- Tax credits given to people who embark on a low-carb program
- Forget about funding ridiculous obesity studies
- Drug companies will have truth in advertising standards
- End FDA control of the vitamin industry
- Regular "State Of Our Weight" addresses from the Oval Office
- Weekly online nutrition education classes from the president
- Government subsidies given to the beef and egg industry
- Medicare dollars spent on PSAs for low-carb living
- Aggressive NIH funding for low-carb research
- AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

And this is just in the first 100 days President Eades is in office! The immediate improvements he would bring about from there would continue through the next four years and possibly beyond once Americans start living healthier than they ever thought they could following a controlled-carbohydrate approach. This is a dream candidacy that could very well become reality if you make the only choice for president for people who support livin' la vida low-carb.

You and I both know even if Dr. Eades was enthusiastically interested in this position (I would assume not), he wouldn't ever have a chance of actually winning. But it should make us think about the people we DO nominate and eventually elect into office. And not just for president, but also the U.S. Senate, Congress, state government officials, as well as on your local level.

Are these people representing YOU and your beliefs regarding health? Well they should and I encourage you to bring this issue to the forefront as you consider your options. Ask the candidates what they think about livin' la vida low-carb and if they'd be willing to look at all the latest scientific data regarding low-carb diets to make policy changes regarding diet and health.

We can keep ignoring the evidence, but the problem will not go away. But if our government leaders can keep an open mind and be willing to listen to the REAL experts like Dr. Eades, Dr. Jonny Bowden, Dr. Jeff Volek, Dr. Mary C. Vernon, Dr. Eric Westman, Dr. Richard Feinman, Dr. Larry McCleary, and Dr. Stephen Phinney, then perhaps we'll have some hope for the future of the greatest country in the world.

Six Years After 9/11, I Cannot And Will Not Forget

I couldn't let this day pass by without acknowledging how important it is to recognize what September 11th means to me. It's the defining moment of my lifetime and probably will remain that way just as December 7, 1941 was for the generation of my grandparents (if you didn't know that was the day Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was bombed by Japan that got the United States involved in World War II, then it proves just how important it is to remember these moments in our history!).

My memory of September 11, 2001 is quite vivid as I blogged about in a recent post when I was called by the New York, NY-based "LIVE with Regis & Kelly" television show that day to be a contestant for their trivia contest.

But there would be no show that day as madness and mayhem struck New York, America, and the world. Thinking back on it now, I can remember all day on that Tuesday sitting glued to the television set in a stunned sense of stupor wondering what was happening. It seemed like the entire world was under attack and nobody could stop it.

In case you have forgotten (and hopefully you have not), here's a reminder:



Whenever I see these images, I can't help but feel all the sorrow, anguish, anger, disappointment, and every other emotion imaginable. I'm not normally one who gets overly emotional about anything, but 9/11 changed that. This is something I cannot and WILL NOT ever forget.

It should be mandatory that children who either have little or no memory of that tragic day in our history be told about what evil men tried to do to break the will of our nation at the time and how their desperate attempts didn't work. It didn't hurt us, but rather it strengthened our resolve to defend our freedoms even more.

Regardless of how you feel about what has happened since 9/11, the fact is we are all different now because of the events of that day in New York, Washington, and in Pennsylvania. Anyone who says they are the same today as they were on September 10, 2001 is lying. We all changed whether we realize it or not.

Before I end this blog post, I want to share with you two more videos that will take you back to that Tuesday in September six years ago. I want you to put yourself in the shoes of this dear man pleading with the 911 dispatch operator to help him. You can hear him talking about his young children and that he didn't want to die this way.

It hurts to hear this, but will make you remember this day all over again:



Finally, when life went haywire on 9/11, Someone was there through it all:



May we never forget September 11th! God bless America!