Red Lobster’s “Create Your Own Combination” offers 2,710 calories, and four days’ worth of sodium – 6,530 milligrams – if you choose the Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp, Walt’s Favorite Shrimp, and Shrimp Linguine Alfredo to go with the Caesar salad, French fries, and one Cheddar Bay Biscuit. Combine that with a Lobsterita – the chain’s 890-calorie, 24-ounce margarita – and the meal totals 3,600 calories. That’s enough calories for nearly two days.
It’s the highest-calorie meal among the 2015 Xtreme Eating “dishonorees,” as the center calls them.
“This nutritional shipwreck from Red Lobster exemplifies the kind of gargantuan restaurant meal that promotes obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases,” said the center’s registered dietitian Paige Einstein. “If this meal were unusual, that would be one thing, but America’s chain restaurants are serving up 2,000-calorie breakfasts, 2,000-calorie lunches, 2,000-calorie dinners, and 2,000-calorie desserts left and right. Abnormal is the new normal.”
Some of the other “winners” include:
- IHOP’s Chorizo Fiesta Omelette. The omelette, with spicy chorizo sausage, roasted peppers, onions, and pepper jack cheese, then topped with a citrus chili sauce and sour cream and served with a fresh grilled serrano pepper, has 1,300 calories. However, it comes with three buttermilk pancakes or hash browns, toast, or fruit. With pancakes and four tablespoons of syrup, the breakfast has a day’s worth of calories, 1,990, and two days’ worth of saturated fat, 42 grams.
- Dickey’s Barbecue Pit’s 3 Meat Plate. The center chose Polish sausage, pork ribs, and beef brisket and sides of fried Onion Tanglers and mac and cheese, plus the free roll, pickles, onions, and a 32-ounce – the only size offered – sweet tea. Diners can eat as much free soft-serve ice cream as they want. With one half-cup of ice cream in a cone, the 2,500-calorie meal has 49 grams of saturated fat, 4,700 mg of sodium, two-and-a- half- to three-days’ worth of each, plus 29 teaspoons of sugar. The center said it’s like eating three Big Macs with five Vanilla Cones.
- Louisiana Chicken Pasta from The Cheesecake Factory. It’s parmesan crusted chicken served over pasta with mushrooms, peppers, and onions in a spicy New Orleans sauce. At 1½ pounds, this plate has 2,370 calories, more than a day’s worth; 80 grams of saturated fat, a four-day supply; and 2,370 mg of sodium. It’s the equivalent of two orders of Fettuccine Alfredo plus two breadsticks at Olive Garden.
- A large Pineapple Upside Down Master Blast from Sonic. It’s a 32-ounce cup filled with vanilla ice cream, pineapple, and salted caramel and pie crust pieces and topped with several inches of whipped cream. It has 2,020 calories; 61 grams of saturated fat, three days’ worth; 4½ grams of trans fat, more than two days’ worth; and about 29 teaspoons of added sugar. It has the calories of about four Dairy Queen Banana Splits.
- Steak ‘n Shake’s 7×7 Steakburger ‘n Fries. It’s only available from midnight to 6 a.m. on the chain’s “Up All Night” menu. The burger’s seven beef patties and seven slices of cheese, plus a side of fries, totals 1,570 calories and more than two days’ worth of saturated fat. With a 960-calorie Chocolate Fudge Brownie Milkshake, the total comes to 2,530 calories, 68 grams of saturated fat, more than 5,000 mg of sodium, and 26 teaspoons of added sugar. It’s like sitting down to four 9-ounce Outback Steakhouse sirloin steaks, each topped with two half-cup scoops of Breyers Chocolate Ice Cream.
“It’s not enough to have one or two patties on a burger, or one or two slices of cheese; now we’re seeing seven patties and seven slices of cheese on a burger,” said Einstein. “With our burgers getting bigger and bigger, it’s no surprise that many of our waistlines are, too.”
Meals from Outback Steakhouse and Uno Pizzeria & Grill also made the center’s list of the worst meals in America this year.
Rules have been finalized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requiring calories to be listed on chain-restaurant menus. The information is to be provided in December.
Until then, the center suggests avoiding extreme entrées by ordering from “light” menus, where available, such as the Simple and Fit menu at IHOP or the SkinnyLicious menu at The Cheesecake Factory.
With about 600 calories, those meals aren’t low calorie, but they’re better than what you’ll find on the rest of the menu, she said.
To cut calories, the center recommends ordering a thin crust pizza over hand-tossed or pan; a small filet or sirloin over a New York Strip, rib eye, or sirloin; or broiled, steamed, baked, or grilled seafood over fried seafood.
