By Melissa Breyer for Care2.com
What the fudge is wrong with us? As obesity, diabetes and heart disease are plaguing the country in lethal proportions, restaurants are chirpily churning out caloric combinations of sodium and saturated fat that would make Henry VIII blush. Things are getting so raucous around here that a new study found that gout, yes gout, has increased by 44 percent in the last two decades, courtesy of the obesity epidemic and related health problems (diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol).
Restaurants create and tempt the masses with flashy dishes caloric enough to feed a small family, while the USDA, earnest as a shy sister, issues dietary guidelines which pretty much fall on deaf ears. Although recommended calorie intake varies by person, the range is from 1,600 to 2,400 calories per day for adult women and 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day for adult men, depending on age and physical activity level.
As for sodium intake, another daunting piece of the puzzle, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting sodium to less than 2,300 mg a day—or 1,500 mg if you’re age 51 or older, or if you are black, or if you have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic kidney disease.
So with those nuggets in mind, how do these ten contenders for worst foods in America stack up against what is recommended for maintaining nutritional health? Let’s see….
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It’s breakfast time and you want to start your day off right with a healthy and nutritious meal that doesn’t take long to make. You open your pantry and grab the Fiber One Original cereal. Then for lunch time, you are away from home so you run to McDonald’s and get their Premium Southwest Salad with Grilled Chicken. Around 3:00, you need a snack so you snack on some Wheat Thins Fiber Selects. Then for dinner, you have some spaghetti and meatballs from Pizza Hut.
What do all of these foods have in common? They all contain wood cellulose, which means that you are eating wood. Many companies, including those listed above, use wood cellulose in their foods all the time, and therefore, you are eating wood on a fairly regular basis. It is shocking to realize that many of the foods we eat when we are trying to make healthier options are so processed that they really are not as healthy as we may have thought.
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America could possibly bid farewell to an icon this coming year. The fast food restaurant chain A&W is speculated to stop serving burgers and root beer floats in 2012.
Founded in 1919, the restaurant developed the “drive in” format that remains a staple of American fast food even today. Known for its signature root beer and burgers, the company boomed after World War II and over 450 franchises were opened nationwide. However, today there are only 322 operating national stores. The company has been deemed too small to be successful. The soda manufacturing side of the business will remain untouched as Dr.Pepper/Snapple owns the container beverage version of A&W Root Beer.
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Those of us fighting the good fight against unhealthy diets, obesity, and the ailments they cause did a big palm-to-face smack this week.
A KFC franchise in Utah launched a promotional fundraiser to their patrons. It was advertised that with every $2.99 purchase of a KFC 64-ounce Big Jug drink, $1 would go to the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation.
One has to wonder how that planning meeting was conducted and who was the rising star who came up with this idea. However, the franchise owner has a personal connection to the disease and the promotion did run as advertised.
A spokesperson for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) responded after the fundraiser received so much attention. It was clarified that the JDRF supports research for type 1 diabetes and not type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an auto immune disease and not an onset disease caused by obesity or consuming too much junk food.
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Of all of the fast-food chains, I would not have picked KFC to be a place that would have multiple options for people looking for a healthy meal on the go. But, to my surprise, KFC does have some healthy choices! Granted, you obviously can’t order the KFC Double Down or any sandwich or bowl from there, for that matter, but you can pair some things together for a meal that has less than 500 calories and less than 500 milligrams of sodium. This healthy criteria is based on feedback from registered dietitian Rebecca Scritchfield and the new daily sodium recommendations.
To find your perfect healthy KFC meal, pair one chicken option from the list below with one of the sides also listed below. Happy healthy-meal mix-and-matching!
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