Fast Food Appetizers, Entrées and Desserts to Avoid

With reporting based on the June 2009 Nutrition Action Healthletter Report from Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

In response to the increasing obesity rates and the increasingly extreme sizes and unhealthiness of chain restaurant food, CSPI unleashed its first annual "Xtreme Eating Awards" in 2007 -- giving a big fat "F" to each item -- bloated with calories, saturated fat and sodium -- included in the report, demanding restaurants be required to post nutrition information next to each menu order -- not just online.

Know before you order: The Food and Drug Administration has set the acceptable daily allowance for calories at 2,000, saturated fat at 20 grams and sodium content at 2,400 milligrams. CSPI recommends restricting sodium intake even more -- suggesting a daily cap of 1,500 milligrams.

Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, California, Massachusetts and several counties across the country require some form of nutrition information to be posted, but CSPI wants more. In conjunction with its "Xtreme Eating Awards 2009," CSPI is calling for Congress to pass the Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act, which would require major restaurant chains to post calories on menu boards and list calories, saturated plus trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium on printed menus across the U.S.

In a survey cited by CSPI, 82 percent of respondents said that seeing nutrition information posted in New York City restaurants affected their food choices. CSPI would like the information to be presented in a standardized way "like with packaged foods in supermarkets," says "Xtreme Eating 2009" co-author Jayne Hurley, explaining that doing so "virtually changed supermarkets overnight. Before the labeling there were no 'Lean Cuisine' type choices. Now you can't go to a store without finding a lower-sodium, lower-calorie or lower-fat version of a food. You'd see the same sort of thing at fast food places. Instead of one or two healthy choices, it would really level the playing field."

Read the full "Xtreme Eating Awards" report here. Print this article.