What is “America’s Unhealthiest Drink”, according to Men’s Health magazine?
At the top of their list of one dozen dastardly libations is Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz) with 2,310 calories, 266 grams of sugar, and 108 grams of fat (64 of them saturated). That’s more calories than an adult woman is supposed to consume per day. That’s nearly twice as much fat and more than three times as much saturated fats. In one drink!
Toss in a Wendy’s Classic Triple Cheeseburger— notoriously America’s worst fast food sandwich at 940 calories with 56 grams of fat, 25 of them saturated—and you have a heart attack happy meal in one greasy sack.
Okay, of course, no one would eat both in one sitting and I’m skeptical that many of either are sold in general, but what about the sneakier foods and drinks. Vitaminwater is advertised all over, using svelte and powerful athletes as pitchmen. Yet if they lived on Vitaminwater (“It’s got vitamins right in the water!”), they would not be so svelte anymore. One 20-ounce bottle has 130 calories and 33 grams of sugar. They should just drink Coke instead.
So, while the extreme examples on lists of this type are fun to gawk at but are probably rarely consumed, they do serve the helpful task of drawing our attention to the more mundane products which don’t pack the same wallop to our health, but can be cause for concern if consumed to readily. In the end, I think we’d all be well served if we paid closer attention to the nutritional labeling.
You might want to lay off some of those Starbucks Frappuccinos when you see how much fat and calories are in them, even if they’re not in the blow-out-your-aorta category.
Photo credit: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Image Credit
- smoothie.jpg: Shift6/Wikimedia Commons | Public domain
Are you not counting the Hardee’s Monster Thickburger because Hardee’s isn’t quite nationwide, or is there some other reason?
I was going from memory from a book by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, those nanny killjoys. I guess someone else like Hardees could have come along in the interim to eject Wendy’s from first place.
I’ve lost 25 to 30 lbs in the last 6/7 months. I changed my diet by cutting out the snacking (a few small pretzel sticks, some walnuts, or raisins when I have the urge), watching my portions, skip a lunch if I know I’m going to have a big dinner, and, finally, stopped—cold turkey—drinking Diet Coke.
The Diet Coke was the hardest part as I had a good Jones for many years for that stuff—2 or 3 cans per day. I read an article earlier this year that cited a connection between weight gain and diet sodas.
Who knows…
That shake looks like something my whole family (4 adults) would *share*. And that only if it was somebody’s birthday.
How to Cure Brain Freeze