Consumer Advocacy Group Names Restaurants With the Worst Foods for Your Health

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has published a list of the worst meals served in restaurants in terms of calorie-, fat- and sodium content. The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant chain popular with families, has been named as one of the worst offenders, followed by Dennys and IHOP, both fast food places.

The Cheesecake Factorys Farmhouse Cheeseburger contains a whopping 1,530 calories and 36 grams of saturated fat that is without the humongous pile of French fries that comes with it. The biggest punch comes from the smoked pork belly meat that is topped with cheddar cheese, a fried egg, onions, lettuce, tomato, plus a spread of mayonnaise on the buns.

If that doesnt fill you up, there is always dessert. The Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake packs 1,540 calories even more than the cheeseburger not including the whipped cream and frosting for decoration.

The runner-up, Dennys, offers a really big bang for the buck with its Fried Cheese Melt, which consists of mozzarella sticks wrapped in cheese (!) and sandwiched between two slices of fried (!) sourdough bread, adding up to 1,260 calories, not to mention the 21 grams of fat and the 3,010 milligrams of sodium. Of course, you can have fries with that, too.

IHOPs Monster Bacon N Beef Cheeseburger comes with two beef patties wrapped in bacon and a thick layer of American and Provolone cheese. If you eat it all, you have a fill of 1,250 calories and 42 grams of saturated fat.

These are just three examples. There are plenty of others that deserve to be on this list. What this shows is that portion sizes in restaurants have completely gone out of control. The Dietary Guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommend a maximum daily calorie intake of 3,000 calories for men and 2,400 for women. By eating items like those named above, you can easily exceed these limits with just one meal.

Its not hard to see why restaurants offer supersized portions. The differences in costs between smaller and larger sizes are minimal to them, but consumers feel they get lots of extra value if the food on their plates is stacked to the ceiling. All you can eat is no longer just an advertising slogan, it is now an expectation people have when they place their orders. Pigging out has become a popular pastime. What used to be a special occasion is now an everyday occurrence. A fat reduction overview can help you construct a clear describe of what you require to focus on to carry out your fat burning objective if you're a rookie; or serve as a reminder for these who are at an intermediate or more enhance phase of their weight loss plan. Following are seven steps that can serve as guidelines for your personal weight loss system. The first thing that one must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not exactly the same thing. Many weight loss applications have fooled people into believing that it is the same, but most diets and weight loss programs only work by producing a person's body to eliminate more muscle flesh and water than actual body fat, more help please visit The Fat Loss Factor. Studies on the subject show that Americans eat at least a third of their meals outside the home.

The government is trying to push restaurant operators to disclose more nutritional information, such as calorie counts, on their menus. New rules to that effect are expected to become law nationwide by the end of the year. Some of these measures may be helpful, but they are not the solution to the entire problem. They cant be.

Interest groups and organizations of the food service industry keep stressing that they only respond to customers demands. It is up to the individuals themselves, they say, to act responsibly and control their impulses.

It is true that dining out is often seen as an occasional indulgence and a time when one has to be less concerned with weight issues even if it takes place regularly.

What is more concerning is that unhealthy eating habits have become acceptable as somewhat normal. People almost expect to overeat when they sit down at a restaurant table or order take-out.

Much of that has become plausible because of cultural shifts. The way many of us value (or rather dont value) food itself has changed. Just look at popular TV shows like Man v. Food on the Travel Channel. Its host, Adam Richman, travels around the country to take on so-called food challenges, which means devouring impossibly large quantities of food in record time. Mr. Richman enjoys a growing following (no pun intended). He has a large network of fan clubs whose members mimic his example to find and destroy food wherever they can find it (quote from a fans website). Now in the fourth season, the producers of the show are inviting others to join in and turn the whole thing into a team effort. No shortage of willing candidates, of course.

All this may sound like a lot of harmless fun. It isnt. The underlying messages conveyed by spectacles like these impact the ways we view our relationship to food, to our bodies, to our health. They change the conversation and there is a price to be paid for all this. Our current obesity crisis together with the vast array of lifestyle-related health problems we are facing today has not emerged in a vacuum. We have met the enemy, and it is us, all of us.

Timi Gustafson R.D. is a clinical dietitian and author of The Healthy Diner How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun, which is available on her blog http://www.timigustafson.com and at amazon.com. Her latest book, "Kids Love Healthy Foods" is now available in e-book format, also at www.amazon.com

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