In our modern dining landscape, navigating the menus of popular restaurants can often feel like traversing a minefield of hidden caloric pitfalls.
Certain foods that you casually order can be high in fats, sugars, and salt, which may negatively impact your health objectives.
Discover 5 calorie-dense items to limit or avoid for better health and fitness.
Discover how to improve your decision-making when dining out or ordering food.
Navigating Restaurants’ Calorie Bomb Menus
California Pizza Kitchen: Waldorf Chicken Salad
California Pizza Kitchen offers a delightful Waldorf Chicken Salad with grilled chicken, veggies, walnuts, and fruit.
Appearing healthy, it is actually detrimental to your well-being.
This salad is quite substantial, containing nearly 100 grams of fat and double the recommended sugar content.
Additionally, this salad provides a significant portion of your daily caloric intake. Due to these health risks, Prevention magazine may have included it on their list of salads to avoid.
- 1,320 calories
- 94 grams of fat, with 22 grams being saturated fat.
- 2,020 milligrams of sodium and 54 grams of sugar
Mellow Mushroom: Great White Pizza
The nutrition information provided is for one large slice of Mellow Mushroom’s Great White Pizza. This slice contains 520 calories, 50 grams of carbs, and 31 grams of fat.
That’s quite a hefty amount of calories, carbohydrates, and fat to consume in just one slice of pizza with hardly any toppings.
Therefore, it’s best to steer clear of this particular pizza.
- 520 calories
- 31 grams of fat, with 11 grams being saturated fat
- 1,070 mg of sodium and 3 grams of sugar
The Cheesecake Factory: Louisiana Chicken Pasta
The Louisiana Pasta dish at the Cheesecake Factory boasts an incredibly high calorie count, likely due to the inclusion of fried chicken and thick pasta.
This main dish contains 2,120 calories and 4,030 mg of sodium.
For individuals concerned about their weight or sodium consumption, it’s best to avoid this food. Additionally, it contains a high amount of fat and 168 grams of carbs, further reducing its healthiness.
- 2,120 calories
- 125 grams of fat, with 65 grams being saturated fat
- 4,030 mg of sodium and 16 grams of sugar
Smoothie King: “The Hulk” Strawberry Smoothie
Many individuals believe that smoothies are a nutritious option. However, there are exceptions, like Smoothie King’s “The Hulk” Strawberry Smoothie.
This beverage contains 800 calories in a small twenty-ounce serving. There are 300 milligrams of salt and a significant amount of sugar included.
Ordering the large forty-ounce size of this smoothie will provide you with 1,770 calories, nearly meeting an adult’s daily calorie requirements.
- 800 calories
- 64 grams of fat
- 390 milligrams of sodium
- 131 grams of sugar
Ruby Tuesday: Crispy Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese
Avoid consuming the Crispy Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese at Ruby Tuesday if you have high blood pressure.
Choose This, Not That! According to the information provided, this dish contains 5,960 mg of sodium, equivalent to the salt content in 33 bags of Kettle Sea Salt and Vinegar potato chips.
This meal contains a substantial 1,920 calories, nearly reaching the total daily recommended calorie intake.
While this dish may seem like a delicious comfort food, it may not be the healthiest option in the long term.
- 1,920 calories
- 110 grams of fat, with 51 grams being saturated fat
- 5,960 mg of sodium
- 26 grams of sugar
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