Eating healthfully isn’t just about adopting good habits. It’s also about dropping the bad ones. To help you steer clear of edible landmines, nutritionists at the Center for Science in the Public Interest identified some of the worst foods you could ever eat, with dangerously high combinations of calories, saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar, which ups the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Sorry, Chipotle, Starbucks, and Cheesecake Factory fans! It pretty much goes without saying that these foods should never touch your lips:
1. Stouffer’s Satisfying Servings White Meat Chicken Pot Pie. Half of this 16-ounce dish contains 590 calories, 13 grams of saturated fat, and 930 milligrams of salt. Eat the whole thing and you’ve just downed 1,180 calories, along with more than a day’s worth of saturated fat (26 grams) and sodium (1,860 milligrams).
2. Five Guys Hamburger. Even without any toppings, this burger delivers 700 calories and a day’s worth of saturated fat (20 grams). Want a side of regular fries with that? Add on another 950 calories. Gulp.
3. Campbell’s Condensed Soup. The average cup has 810 milligrams of sodium, but if you’re like most people and you polish off the whole can of soup, you’re getting a whopping 2,030 milligrams of sodium — that’s more salt than what most adults should consume in an entire day.
4. Chipotle Chicken Burrito clocks in at 1,020 calories, 16 grams of saturated fat, and 2,400 milligrams of sodium. Just to keep things in perspective, that’s the equivalent of eating six Taco Bell Chicken Soft Tacos.
5. The Cheesecake Factory’s Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake. The slice — or should we say slab? — of cake weighs in at a scary 1,900 calories. Thanks to heaps of chocolate, sugar, cream and butter, one piece packs in three days’ worth of saturated fat (62 grams).
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6. Uno Chicago Grill’s Deep Dish Macaroni & 3-Cheese has a staggering 1,980 calories, along with 71 grams of saturated fat and 3,110 milligrams of sodium — that’s two days’ worth of sodium right there. Yipes.
7. Olive Garden’s Tour of Italy should end with a tour of a hospital. The 1,450-calorie meal includes homemade lasagna, lightly breaded chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo. It packs in 33 grams of saturated fat and 3,830 milligrams of sodium.
8. Starbucks Venti White Chocolate Mocha. With 2 percent milk and whipped cream, this 20-ounce coffee drink is more like a meal, with 580 calories, 14 grams of saturated fat, and 11 teaspoons of added sugar. Switch to the 12-ounce tall version with nonfat milk and pass on the whipped cream and you’ll reduce the calories to 270 and saturated fat to 3 1/2 grams.
9. Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream. The average half-cup serving — note, not even a full cup — scoops up 300 calories with 4 1/2 teaspoons of added sugar and a heaping of saturated fat.
10. Cold Stone Creamery’s Oh Fudge! Shake. You’ll be saying something worse than “Oh fudge!” when you find out that the small, 12-ounce “Like It” size contains 820 calories. The larger, 20-ounce “Love It” size climbs to 1,360 calories and 2 1/2 days’ worth (52 grams) of saturated fat. Want to satisfy your sweet tooth more healthfully? Try these nutritionist-recommend desserts that won’t derail your diet.
