Ah, fast food. It's greasy, unfulfilling, and seriously bad for you but damn, is it
hard not to love it. Still, there are a few menu items you'll want to keep away from,
no matter how decadent you're feeling. These are the unhealthy fast foods you should always
avoid.
If you were going to pick the unhealthiest item off the McDonald's menu, you'd probably
choose one of their burgers, right? As it turns out, however, the unhealthiest McDonald's
dish is a breakfast option specifically, their Big Breakfast platter.
Order this heaping plate of breakfast-y goodness and you'll get a warm biscuit, sausage patty,
multiple hash browns, three pancakes with syrup and butter, and a mountain of scrambled
eggs. All in all, the platter adds up to 1,340 calories and 63 grams of fat which is almost
your entire daily recommended intake of fat. It's also more than half of your calorific
allotment for the day, which isn't a great start when you haven't even gotten to lunch
yet.
If you want to stick to the healthier options on the McDonald's breakfast menu, you'd be
best going with the fruit and maple oatmeal, which contains just 320 calories, or the classic
Egg McMuffin, which clocks in at 310.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that Chipotle tends to err towards healthier foods, compared
to some of the more burger-centric fast food joints. After all, almost everything they
serve up at least feels fresh, and nobody really associates Chipotle with greasy, fried
food. But don't be deceived by appearances because some of Chipotle's menu items contain
more calories, sodium, and fat than you could possibly imagine.
The worst thing you can order off their menu is the carnitas burrito in a flour tortilla,
with rice, beans, guac, cheese, queso, and sour cream, along with a side of tortilla
chips and queso. This meal combo results in a total of 2,220 calories; 117.5 grams of
fat; and 3,330 mg of sodium. Obviously, all of these totals are far above the FDA's recommended
daily intake. It's almost impressive, in a way.
Nobody ever pretended that fried chicken is good for you. But it turns out that Colonel
Sanders' dirty little secret is a whole lot worse.
The KFC Famous Bowl includes a kids-sized serving of popcorn chicken nuggets, alongside
mashed potatoes, gravy, shredded cheese, and corn. It also comes packed with 740 calories,
35 grams of fat, 45 grams of cholesterol, and 2,530 milligrams of sodium.
A close runner-up for the title is the KFC chicken pot pie. Despite appearing all harmless
and wholesome, this monstrosity contains 720 calories, 41 grams of fat, and 1,750 grams
of sodium and that's before you factor in the sides. Maybe you'd be better off with
a bucket of chicken, after all.
Burger King's most shockingly shameless menu item has got to be the Triple Whopper with
cheese. After all, nobody nobody needs three patties in a single burger. Curiously enough,
though, it's not the chain's most unhealthy dish.
Just looking at single menu items, the least healthy item on the Burger King menu is the
Texas Double Whopper. Despite only containing two patties, this burger contains a staggering
1,876 calories, 136 grams of fat, and 3,079 milligrams of sodium. Make that a large with
a drink and a side, and your meal could potentially rack up a mind-boggling 3,500 calories. BK
even have a warning on their website attached to the Texas Double Whopper, which points
out that:
"The sodium content of this item is higher than the total daily recommended limit (2,300mg).
High sodium intake can increase blood pressure and risk of heart disease and stroke."
Because nothing says 'fun meal out with the family' like having to contend with your own
mortality.
It's far too easy to walk into a Taco Bell and order way too much food. After all, who
could possibly resist getting some tacos with that burrito, throwing in a few nachos, or
even getting some churros for after?
Nonetheless, it might surprise you to learn that the unhealthiest item at Taco Bell is
actually one of the sides. Here, the top spot is held by the Nachos Bell Grande, which you
might know better as those massive trays of nachos, covered in taco meat, cheese sauce,
and sour cream.
So what can you actually expect from the Nachos Bell Grande? Well, one of these bad boys comes
packed with 740 calories, 38 grams of fat, and 1,050 milligrams of sodium. While that's
not all bad compared to some of the other fast food items out there, it is still pretty
high for a side dish so unless you're planning on having only nachos, you might want to opt
for something a little lighter to go alongside that quesadilla.
Yeah, okay, so Subway has done pretty well at establishing a reputation for being one
of the healthier fast food options. But that doesn't mean you can walk into your favorite
sub shop, order anything off the menu, and still expect it to be good for you. In fact,
one item in particular on the menu is bound to leave you swimming in salt: the turkey
and bacon guacamole wrap.
Sure, it's innocent-looking. You've got a tomato-basil wrap filled with a heap of turkey,
bacon, cheese, guacamole, some veggies, and then a little ranch dressing. Maybe the ranch
dressing and guacamole are a little fattening, but overall, this looks like a safe bet until
you see how much salt it contains. Somehow, this deceiving wrap contains a whopping 2,570
milligrams of sodium, which is just over the daily recommended intake.
The summer-exclusive Chick-fil-A peach milkshake is a cult favorite in the world of fast food.
That said, it's probably a good thing that you can only order it during certain months
of the year, because this delightful summer treat is positively filled with sugar; 94
grams, to be exact, which is equal to about 22 teaspoons of table sugar. And that's nearly
double the FDA-recommended daily 50 grams of added sugar or less.
But that's not all, because the peach milkshake also includes 630 calories and 21 grams of
fat. This means that, if you wanted to burn off all the calories and sugar from downing
one of these milkshakes, you'd need to walk for 169 minutes, run for 59 minutes, or cycle
for 108 minutes. So, next time you find yourself craving Chick-fil-A's peach milkshake, ask
yourself: how far would you run for it?
All things considered, Wendy's Pretzel Bacon Pub burger looks pretty good.
“Wendy's new pretzel pub cheeseburger: you wanna smash it right in your mouth. Hard."
"Yeah, that's not the line."
But the triple version of this burger really is something else. Nearly a pound of beef
is fried up and topped with warm beer cheese, bacon, honey mustard, fried onions, three
slices of cheese, and pickles, and then tucked into a pretzel bun. What's not to love?
Unfortunately, when it comes to the nutritional info, there's actually quite a lot not to
love. With 1,520 calories, 106 grams of fat, and 1,940 milligrams of sodium, the triple
version of this burger nearly accounts for all of your calories and sodium for the day,
and goes well above and beyond your recommended 78 grams of fat.
So if you really want to experience the pub-inspired flavors of this specialty burger, you might
have to lose a few of the beef patties and go with a single instead. Sure, you'll lose
out a little on the sheer, decadent meatiness of it all, but your arteries will thank you
later.
If you grew up in the 1990s, chances are you'll remember getting a personal pan pizza at Pizza
Hut usually in exchange for reading a few books. But did you know that Pizza Hut makes
personal pan pizzas for adults, too? Yes, you too can relive the nostalgia of your childhood
by ordering up a pan size pie. You know, as long as you don't mind the calories.
You see, just because a personal pizza is smaller, that doesn't make it much healthier
than a serving of the chain's other pizzas. For example, if you go with a Meat Lover's
personal pan pizza, you'll be getting 830 calories alongside it. That's pretty hefty
for something so small, especially when you consider that, if you purchased a Meat Lover's
medium pizza, you could eat nearly eight pieces all on your own before you reached 830 calories.
No one ever really expects to keep things healthy when they're going out for ice cream.
Still, it'd be hard to order worse than Dairy Queen's least nutritious blizzard.
The Royal Rocky Road Trip Blizzard is easily the chain's unhealthiest item. It's vanilla
soft serve mixed with brownie pieces, peanuts, and chocolate fudge, all wrapped around a
marshmallow core. A large version of this is packed with 1,510 calories, 70 grams of
fat, and a truly wild 151 grams of sugar. To paint a better picture, that's the equivalent
of just under 36 teaspoons of sugar, or about three-fourths of a cup of sugar. It's a pretty
sobering thought, especially when you consider that Dairy Queen even took the effort to use
reduced-fat soft serve rather than a full-fat alternative. Honestly, at that point, why
even bother?
If you're planning on going to Arby's anytime soon, you might wanna go ahead and skip over
their spicy Greek gyro meal. You might not normally think of gyros as particularly unhealthy,
but this one takes the proverbial cake. It's stuffed with gyro meat, tomatoes, lettuce,
onion, tzatziki sauce, some spices, and a spicy chili sauce — and while that may sound
tame at first, this meal is packed with calories and fat.
Specifically, if you include a small drink and small serving of fries, it comes out to
1,640 calories and more than 75 grams of fat. That puts you nearly at your daily fat threshold
for the day, and pretty close to your calorie limit, too. All things considered, you'd almost
certainly be better off sticking to… well, pretty much anything else.
If you thought Dairy Queen's unhealthiest dessert was bad, just wait until you see what
they've got over at Sonic. Because while Sonic's shakes come in some truly awesome flavors,
there's one item in particular that you may want to avoid.
The Oreo Peanut Butter Shake doesn't necessarily seem all that sweet and sugary, and the ingredients
list is pretty tame, too, only including vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, Oreos, whipped topping,
and a cherry. But looks can be deceiving, and at 1,720 calories for a large, it easily
outranks basically every other dessert in the world of fast food. In terms of sugar,
the Oreo shake comes with 107 grams of the good stuff, alongside 106 grams of fat and
1,130 milligrams of sodium. And this is supposed to be a drink.
"The best part of my day is when I'm at Dunkin'. Do you think that's sad?"
"Yes, very."
If you thought you were safe from the unhealthy evils of fast food just because you only get
coffee at the drive-thru, think again. Dunkin' seems to be doing their darndest to make your
coffee the unhealthiest thing you'll consume all day — especially if you order the chain's
butter pecan swirl frozen coffee with cream. At 1,160 calories, this is by far the unhealthiest
item on the Dunkin menu. You could eat multiple donuts for that same amount of calories, or
even a full meal or two if, for some reason, you're actually eating sensibly. Still, it
kinda makes sense that the butter pecan swirl is so calorific, because this is one drink
that tastes more like a dessert item than actual coffee.
In addition to those calories, you also get 22 grams of saturated fat and 168 grams of
added sugar, which is a staggering 236% over the recommended daily value. On top of all
this, the drink also contains 393 milligrams of caffeine. To put that in perspective, it's
recommended that most adults not exceed 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. In other words:
you probably shouldn't go back for another one.
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