Here's a frightening thought -- pretty soon, we'll be able to see the calorie counts on the menu boards of several fast food joints falling under the parent company Yum Brands, including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, according to recent reports. Don't get me wrong -- I think we all agree that calorie counts on menus are a great idea. What frightens me is knowing how many calories are in a stuffed crust pizza, deep fried chicken thigh or cheesy taco crunchwrap supreme. The horrors.

Still, this is a definitely a step in the right direction for people trying to lose weight. No longer can you plead innocence after downing that bucket of original recipe chicken -- the 'I just didn't realize it had 10 billion calories' excuse won't work anymore. And for those of you who are counting calories, now you'll know exactly how much of your daily intake you've blown in one meal.

What do you think about calorie counts on menus?

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With Super Bowl Sunday only two days away, I'm sure the corporate execs at Domino's, Papa John's, and Pizza Hut are hoping for the usual delivery madness. Inasmuch as these pizza giants rule the delivery game on Super Sunday, plenty of folks may want to keep their diets in check by eating something healthier. A popular solution may be Chinese food; you still get the convenience of having it delivered, but you don't have to worry about all those calories. Or do you?

A new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reveals that Chinese food is ... well, suffice it to say not much better for you than the pizza!! That's because most Chinese food entrees contain between 1,000 and 1,500 calories -- and that's without taking rice, crispy noodles, and other extras into account. Not to mention that fact that some dishes were found to contain two days' worth of sodium.

But, if you're still bent on ordering Chinese food, ask for your sauces to be kept on the side, avoid deep-fried foods altogether, and keep the serving sizes small. To find out which Chinese dishes truly are healthy choices, visit www.dietdetective.com and do a little food sleuthing.

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Ahh, pizza. It's one of my favourites -- how about you? But while pizza can, in theory, be healthy, it's so often not. In fact, it's often one of the worst things you can put in your body. Particularly if you get take-out or order it for a restaurant. Want to know how your favourite pie stacks up? eDiets has published this article on the calorie counts of some popular pizzas.

The good news is that some places off servings of pizza that will only run you around 250 calories.The bad news? Some slices are much, much more. One common offender is Sbarro -- their pepperoni pizza has 730 calories and 37 g of fat!

One surefire way to make sure your pizza doesn't pack too many pounds is by making it yourself. I make mine with a whole wheat thin crust, lots of veggies and just a sprinkling of cheese.

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In this busy world, it's sometimes hard to avoid fast food restaurants. But though you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have a choice of where to eat, you can always choose what to eat. MSN has published this list of the worst fast food offenders, so at the very least, if you find yourself at ones of these eateries, avoid getting:

• McDonald's Deluxe Breakfast weighs in at 1220 calories
• BK's Triple Whopper with Cheese is a hearty 1230 cal, 85 g of fat. That doesn't even include fries
  
• Taco Bell Fiesta Salad. You'd be better off not getting the salad here - it's 860 cal
• Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Meat Lovers has 1000 calories, 82 g of fat in two slices
• Cinnabon's Caramel Pecanabon has 1100 calories, 56 g of fat
• Boston Market's Chicken Pot Pie has 750 calories
• Subways Double Meat Classic Tuna has 790 cal, 55 g of fat
• Domino's ExtravaganZZa Feast deep-dish pizza has 860 calories, 46 grams of fat in two slices
• KFC's Mashed Potato Bowl With Gravy contains 690 calories and 31 grams of fat
• If you must have dessert, by all means, stay away from Dairy Queen's Caramel CheeseQuake Blizzard - it has 1290 calories!

For more items to avoid, check out our How Many Calories feature!

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I was pretty shocked to see this pizza ad from Japan over at Fitsugar. It's like a bunch of people got together and made a list of the top 5 foods in the world and put them all together with a flashy ad daring people to eat it. It reminds me of when I was little and I would stir up a bunch of the grossest things I could find in the fridge and try to convince my little brother to eat the concoction. Except this is worse because I bet people actually eat it. And I bet they enjoy it too.

Here's what it is: a 12-inch cheese pizza with a bunch of veggies on it, with a crust that consists of 12 pigs in blankets, 12 cheese rolls, topped off with bacon, ham, Italian sausage and hamburger patties. Fitsugar did the math and they estimated it to be about 5100 calories for the whole thing, which is lower than I thought -- I would've guessed 10,000. The only way they could make it worse for you is by deep-frying the whole thing. Which I hope to god they don't.

Is this really what the Japanese think we North Americans eat?

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