Everyone needs a sweet indulgence every once in a while. There's nothing wrong with a piece
of chocolate cake or a cookie now and then, and having a little sweet after a meal is
a habit that can be hard to break. It seems no matter how full someone is from their dinner,
there's always room for a bite of dessert. But where you can get into tricky territory
is ordering dessert when you're out at a restaurant. These dessert dishes might even be more gut-busting
than the entire meal you had before them.
Chili's Skillet chocolate chip cookie
This Chili's treat is just one cookie baked in a skillet, topped with a little ice cream.
How bad could it be? Bad - shockingly bad. Of its 1,420 calories, 640 are calories from
fat, which means nearly half of the calories in the whole thing come from the eye-popping
71 grams of fat. Add to that 116 grams of sugar, and it may be more beneficial to eat
the skillet the cookie is baked in. At least it's got iron.
"You need you a skillet!"
Perkins' Peanut butter silk pie
Oh, Perkins. Their pies look so innocent, just a little filling, some whipped cream,
nothing at all, right? Wrong. One slice of peanut butter silk pie not only has 930 calories
and 65 grams of fat, but that one measly slice has 145 milligrams of cholesterol! That's
nearly half the daily average. So basically you can have a slice of pie and then very
little the rest of the day. If you're still not willing to avoid the pie, there are 12
grams of protein per slice so, you know, silver-lining.
T.G.I. Friday's Brownie Obsession
Nothing good ever came from an obsession. Even if it's a warm brownie, topped with vanilla
ice cream, caramel sauce and pecans, like the one from T.G.I. Friday's.
"Don't care how, I want it now."
If you need something to obsess over, how about the fact that if you eat this sundae
you'll have consumed 153 grams of carbohydrates and more than double the amount of saturated
fat recommended in one day. Honestly, just do yourself a favor and don't get too obsessed
with this dessert.
The Cheesecake Factory's double threat
The chocolate truffle tower cake is by far the worst non-cheesecake dessert to get at
The Cheesecake Factory. Seven layers of cake, seven layers of alternating Chocolate Truffle
Cream and Chocolate Mousse, some frosting, and a few mounds of whipped cream, just because.
It has nearly 1,700 calories per serving. It also serves up 206 grams of carbohydrates,
nearly two-thirds of the daily recommended amount. Unless you're carbo-loading for a
big race, do yourself a favor and skip this.
[Crowd cheering]
But it's certainly not the only thing to avoid while you're at the Cheesecake Factory. Adam's
Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple Cheesecake really takes the cake. It contains 200 percent
of your daily allowance of saturated fat, topped off with Butterfingers and Reese's
Peanut Butter Cups, as well as caramel and peanut butter.
P. F. Chang's Great Wall of Chocolate
You probably don't typically think "healthy" when you think of chain Asian restaurants,
but the Great Wall of Chocolate from P. F. Chang's is working on a whole new level. With
1,700 calories and 71 grams of fat, this is one dessert that should serve as a meal itself.
Oh, and you think because it's a dessert, you're free from a lot of sodium? Think again!
This massive slice of cake is loaded with 1,410 milligrams of sodium! Who knew a dessert
so sweet could be so salty?
Olive Garden's zeppoli
This offering of fried pillows of dough dusted in powdered sugar from the Olive Garden is
actually one of the least horrible-for-you desserts on our list, but its 810 calories,
28 grams of fat, and 119 grams of carbohydrates still make it one to avoid. Oh, and don't
forget to factor in the dipping sauces!
"What's in the sauce?"
The raspberry sauce tacks on an additional 210 calories and 51 grams of carbohydrates,
while the chocolate sauce adds an additional 220 calories, 3 grams of fat and 48 grams
of carbohydrates. That makes it more than twice the amount of carbohydrates in the tiramisu.
And let's be honest, didn't you have enough carbohydrates at dinner?
California Pizza Kitchen's butter cake
There's no way something called butter cake wasn't going to be a dessert to avoid! California
Pizza Kitchen considers this dessert one of its signature dishes. It has 73 grams of fat,
315 milligrams of cholesterol, and an astonishing 45 grams of saturated fat. And that's all
before you add the serving of vanilla Häagen-Dazs. The ice cream brings the total fat to a mind-boggling
92 grams.
To put it into perspective, that's the same amount of fat in almost three of California
Pizza Kitchen's Original BBQ chicken pizzas with bacon, but the butter cake still has
more saturated fat and cholesterol. That's almost impressive.