Public health group announces annual Xtreme Eating Awards

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Scoops of macaroni and cheese, deep-fried, topped with more cheese and sitting in plate of marinara sauce. Little bacon-cheeseburgers tucked inside quesadillas. A steak served up with a half racks of ribs on the side.

While it all may sound tasty to some, the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants people to steer clear of these and other dishes noted as the worst of the worst in its 2009 Xtreme Eating Awards.

The awards, which began in 2007, are published in the center’s newsletter Nutrition Action and each food item bucks the group’s recommendation that people limit themselves to about 2,000 calories, 20 grams of saturated fat and 1,500 mg of sodium a day.

The dishes named in the Xtreme Eating Awards contribute to obesity and diet-related disease, the center said in a statement.

The top four extreme dishes named in the Center’s 2009 Xtreme Eating Awards are:

• Red Lobster Ultimate Fondue: Shrimp and crab meat in a lobster cheese sauce served in a sourdough bowl, with 1,490 calories, 40 grams of saturated fat and 3,580 mg of sodium. The center said this dish makes up about two-days sodium intake.

• Applebee’s Quesadilla Burger: A mini-bacon cheeseburger inside a quesadilla. Two flour tortillas, two kinds of meat, two kinds of cheese, pico de gallo salsa, lettuce and a ranch-dressing sauce, served with fries. This meal contains 1,820 calories, 46 grams of saturated fat and 4,410 mg of sodium, the statement said.

• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites: Four mini-bacon-cheeseburgers served with fries, onion strings and jalapeno ranch dipping sauce. The entree has 2,350 calories, 38 grams of saturated fat and 3,940 milligrams of sodium, the center said.

• The Cheesecake Factory Chicken and Biscuits entree: The Center said this dish has 2,500 calories.

Other dishes, like the Cheesecake Factory’s Fried Macaroni and Cheese, will be named award winners in the June issue of Nutrition Action.

The annual awards are part of the public health group’s push for a national law to require restaurant chains with more than 20 locations to post calories on menu boards and list calories, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium on printed menus, the statement said.

A similar law has been passed in California, and by July 1, calorie counts and other nutritional information should be posted on chain restaurant menus across the state, said Daniel Conway, a spokesman for the California Restaurant Assn.

‘All of this information is already out there,’ Conway said. ‘This group essentially just went and got the information and repacked it for some shock value.’

The National Restaurant Association also offered a response to the Xtreme Eating Awards saying the center’s awards aren’t the best way to persuade consumers to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle. The trade group offered the website www.healthdiningfinder.com, which it helps run, as an alternative way of helping restaurant-goers make better choices.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles