Cheeseburger egg rolls, fried chicken and waffles Benedict, and dessert nachos—no, you’re not at the county fair. You can find these dishes at some of the biggest chain restaurants in the country, along with a side of off-the-charts calories, saturated fat, and sodium.
So, who are the biggest offenders? The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s 2016 Xtreme Eating Awards compiled a list of the nine unhealthiest meals available in American chain restaurants, including favorites such as The Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s, and the winners’ list is enough to scare anyone into thinking twice about the next order.
“America’s restaurant chains are serving up meals that seem engineered to promote diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and strokes,” Lindsay Moyer, a senior nutritionist with CSPI, wrote in an email to TakePart. “Because most menus still don’t tell you how many calories you’re getting, most people don’t realize that eating out almost always means overeating.”
In a country where more than one-third of adults are obese according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nutritionists want people to be cautious about what they’re eating. Among their tips for eating out the healthy way? Avoid appetizers and consider eating half of your meal and bagging the rest for leftovers.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration bases nutritional recommendations and facts off a 2,000- or 2,500-calorie diet. Under those guidelines, the average eater should consume no more than 20 milligrams of saturated fat and 2,400 milligrams of sodium a day. Click through our gallery to find out what Xtreme meals are lurking in your neighborhood restaurant.
Correction: Aug. 8, 2016—11:00 a.m.
An earlier version of this photo gallery misstated the amount of sodium in the Sonic Drive-In Candy Slush. It is 115 milligrams.