Friday, March 6, 2009

Friday Food #2

A few weeks ago I was watching The Today Show and they were doing a popular segment called “Eat This, Not That.” Now, of course, given that I am a dietitian, I am frequently appalled by some of the menu items that restaurants serve, but this one has got to be one of the worst I’ve seen. The guy doing this segment obviously agreed, because he named it the worst food of 2009! Here are the nutrition facts for a large Oreo Shake at Baskin Robbins:

  • 2600 calories
  • 135 grams of fat
  • 263 grams of sugar

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Is anyone else as disgusted by this as I am? This is more calories than most people need in an entire day, but would someone eat this and then eat nothing for the rest of the day? No! In fact, it would probably be a dessert in addition to three full meals and possibly some other snacks that day! These numbers seemed so ridiculous to me that I actually went to the Baskin Robbins website to see if it really was true. They only had the nutrition facts for the medium size listed, but after seeing those numbers, I have no doubt that the statistics for the large are accurate! Call me crazy, but I think it should be illegal to sell something like this. If someone wants to create a concoction like this in their own home where they know exactly what they’re consuming, that’s one thing. To actually market and sell this to people, most of whom would never look at the nutrition facts of this beast, is a completely different matter.

Moral of the story: Be careful out there, people. If a shake sounds good to you (we all like a treat every now and then), may I suggest that you pass up the Baskin Robbins and make your own at home?? Obviously, there are many menu items at various restaurants that might make you reconsider ordering them if only you really knew how bad they were. If possible, check out the nutrition facts online before you go to a restaurant or see if they have the information when you get there. Don’t be afraid to ask the servers to make substitutions or leave certain ingredients out of the dish.

6 comments:

Corrine said...

holy cow that is a whole lot of calories!!! man!! sometimes food can be pretty scary.

Unknown said...

Wow!2,600 cals! Scary! I am so gonna go look info up on pour favorite treats and see how much it is adding to my waistline. Thanks for the reminder!

Marcie Francis said...

Thanks for doing "Friday Food." I like it already, because of posts like this that remind me to think more about what I eat at home or from a restaurant. Maybe you could do a future post about high fructose corn syrup. Is it nutritionally the same as sugar, as stated on www.sweetsurprise.com? There's a lot of "information" out there, but some of us are just lazy when it comes to researching it.

Mirien said...

Yikes! What do they put in that thing? I'm with you. There is so much junk out there that I often shake my head and wonder, "How can they sell that garbage?" Great advice you gave. Unfortunately we do have to "be careful out there" and be informed.

Mirien said...

Oh, and I have a request for a future post. What about the canola oil debate? Some say it's one of the best oils to use, others say it's toxic. What does Meredith think?

Kerry and Dave said...

I LOVE milkshakes! And, truth be told, I quite like Oreos although I never buy them. We bought a milkshake maker and make shakes with skim milk and they are quite delicious!