Way to go, Cheesecake Factory. Congratulations, California Pizza Chicken. Jabba the Hutt would be pleased.
Along with P.F. Chang's, Chevy's, Bob Evan's, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and Outback Steakhouse, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has named scale-tipping fare from these restaurants as "winners" of its 2010 Xtreme Eating Awards.
How belly-busting bad does it get? The lowest calorie clog is 1,300 from the New Zealand Lamb, sans sides, at Outback Steakhouse. From there, it gets worse. Way worse.
Like the pasta carbonara from the Cheesecake Factory, weighing in at 2,500 calories and 85 grams of saturated fat, and California Pizza Kitchen's tostada pizza which, when served with a topping of steak, sports 1,680 calories, 32 grams of saturated fat, and -- wait for it -- 3,300 milligrams of sodium.
Stomach-clutching-scary considering that the average American should consume around 2,000 calories per day and no more than 20 grams of saturated fat.
"One might think that chains like Outback Steakhouse and the Cheesecake Factory might want to lighten up their meals now that calories will be required on their menus, courtesy of the health care reform law signed in March," said CSPI's executive director, Michael Jacobson, in a news release, "But these chains don't promote moderation. They practice caloric extremism, and they're helping make modern-day Americans become the most obese people ever to walk the Earth."
That's as depressing as two days' worth of saturated fat (48 grams) from a three-quarter-pound slice of Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake from The Cheesecake Factory.
Digest the full list of Xtreme Eating Award recipients here.
