Restaurant menus: Can nothing shock us anymore?

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Can it be that restaurant-food reports are losing their power to shock? Several of us, with bated breath, gathered round the computer Wednesday to read the announcement of the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s

Xtreme Eating Awards 2009

...a list of nine restaurant meals criminally loaded with calories, salt and saturated fat.

Such as the Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue, ‘shrimp and crabmeat in a creamy lobster cheese sauce served in a warm crispy sourdough bowl’ -- 1,490 calories.

‘1,490 calories, is that all?’ one of us said. ‘I would have thought it would be way more than that.’

Or the Olive Garden’s ‘Tour of Italy,’ a medley of lasagna, chicken parmigiana and fettuccine alfredo. 1,450 calories.

‘Not as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I could add a margarita -- or two.’

Of course, these items are loaded with sodium and fat and contain pretty much all the calories a lot of us should eat in a day (if not more). And, naturally, it seems very useful to have these revelatory counts available, especially given the historical reluctance of some food chains to reveal their nutritional information.

And Lord only knows why anyone would want to morph a quesadilla with a bacon cheeseburger (Applebee’s) or deep-fry macaroni and cheese (Cheesecake Factory). Deep-fried Mars Bar -- maybe. But deep-fried mac-’n-cheese?

The problem is, though, we’re desensitized, like kids who’ve watched too many iterations of ‘Friday the 13th.’ We’re becoming unshockable. Time was, revelations about the hundreds of calories lurking in Jamba Juice smoothies made us go ‘Aaaagh!’ like the first time Freddy popped up in somebody’s nightmare.

But these days, unless it’s got 5,500 calories and 12,000 milligrams of salt and 10 days’ worth of saturated fat before you even add the cheesy bread sticks and salad dressing, it may be increasingly difficult to flabbergast us.

-- Rosie Mestel

Photo credit: Kate Sherwood / Nutrition Action Healthletter