Every once in a while, we all like to eat our favorite foods. But do you know how many calories are hidden in some of the most popular dishes?
Some of the foods you order without giving it much thought are high in fats, sugars, and salt which are bad for you and can ruin your health goals.
This article will show you 10 items that are high in calories and that you should avoid or eat less of if you want to stay healthy and fit. Find out what they are and how to make better decisions when you eat out or order in by reading on.
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1. Applebee’s: Oriental Chicken Salad with Crispy Chicken
- 1,570 calories
- 105 g fat (17 g saturated fat)
- 1,730 mg sodium
- 144 g sugar
How unhealthy can a chicken salad be? This salad has an astonishing quantity of sugar, equal to four Krispy Kreme donuts. It also has an abnormally high salt content. Surprisingly, the calories in this chicken salad exceed those in Applebee’s Prime Rib Dipper and Chicken Dipper Platter.
This salad is also available at Applebee’s in a wrap, which has 1,900 calories. Furthermore, the wrap has just 100 fewer calories than the average daily calorie intake for most people (2,000). As a result, if you’re attempting to eat healthy when dining out, skip this salad.
2. California Pizza Kitchen: Waldorf Chicken Salad
- 1,320 calories
- 94 g fat (22 g saturated fat)
- 2,020 mg sodium
- 54 g sugar
The Waldorf Chicken Salad at California Pizza Kitchen has grilled chicken, veggies, walnuts, and fruit. It looks healthy, but it is actually very bad for you.
The large size of this salad has almost 100 grams of fat and twice the amount of sugar that is suggested. Also, this salad has most of the calories you need for the day. Because of these health risks, Prevention magazine may have put it on its list of salads to avoid.
3. IHOP: Buttermilk Biscuit
- 810 calories
- 64 g fat (26 g saturated fat)
- 1,360 mg sodium
- 4 g sugar
Did you know that the buttermilk biscuit at IHOP has a lot of sugar, fat, and calories? It’s crazy that one biscuit has 810 calories, 64 grams of fat, and 1,360 grams of sugar.
There are also fifty-three grams of carbs and forty-five grams of fat in it. As it turns out, a single cookie has almost twice as many calories as a small stack of pancakes, which has three pancakes.
Pick the short-stack pancakes or the English muffins, which are better for you.
4. Mellow Mushroom: Great White Pizza
- 520 calories
- 31 g fat (11 g saturated fat)
- 1,070 mg sodium
- 3 g sugar
The nutrition facts listed above are for a single big slice of Mellow Mushroom’s Great White Pizza. One slice has 520 calories, 50 grams of carbs, and 31 grams of fat.
That is a lot of calories, carbohydrates, and fat to ingest in one slice of pizza with nearly no toppings. As a result, it is a pizza that you should avoid.
5. Outback Steakhouse: Bloomin’ Onion
- 1250 calories
- 54 g fat (8 g saturated fat)
- 6,350 mg sodium
- 34 g sugar
The Bloomin’ Onion appetizer offered at Outback Steakhouse is routinely included on lists of the worst restaurant meals, and it’s easy to understand why.
This meal has 1,250 calories and 6,350 milligrams of sodium, so even sharing it with friends might result in a large intake of calories and salt.
Furthermore, the meal contains eight grams of saturated fat from partially hydrogenated oil, which has been linked to an increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol and a reduction in good cholesterol.
6. Olive Garden: Shrimp Fritto Misto
- 1,280 calories
- 79 g fat (5 g saturated fat)
- 5,010 mg sodium
- 9 g sugar
When it comes to calories and salt, Olive Garden’s other starters are all better than the Shrimp Fritto Misto, which has 5,010 milligrams of sodium.
If you are trying to cut down on salt, you should skip this starter. It has twice the daily recommended amount of salt. Also, deep-fried foods are high in fat, even though they taste great. This is especially true when you add a filling sauce.
In addition, this snack has more calories than a whole meal. You will eat a lot of calories that you don’t need, even if you share this starter.
7. Ruby Tuesday: Crispy Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese
- 1,920 calories
- 110 g fat (51 g saturated fat)
- 5,960 mg sodium
- 26 g sugar
If you have high blood pressure, don’t eat the Crispy Chicken Mac ‘n Cheese at Ruby Tuesday. Eat This, Not That! says that this dish has 5,960 mg of sodium, which is the same amount of salt as 33 bags of Kettle Sea Salt and Vinegar potato chips.
This dish also has a huge 1,920 calories, which is almost the whole daily recommended amount of calories. Even though this dish sounds like a tasty comfort food, it might not be good for you in the long run.
8. Smoothie King: “The Hulk” Strawberry Smoothie
- 800 calories
- 64 g fat
- 390 mg sodium
- 131 g sugar
A lot of people think that smoothies are a good food choice. This isn’t always the case, though, as Smoothie King’s “The Hulk” Strawberry Smoothie shows.
This drink has 800 calories in a small twenty-ounce dose. Three hundred milligrams of salt and a lot of sugar are also in it.
If you order the big forty-ounce amount of this smoothie, it has 1,770 calories, which is almost all of an adult’s daily calorie needs.
9. Tropical Smoothie Café: The Peanut Butter Cup
- 700 calories
- 18g fat (6 g saturated fat)
- 220 mg sodium
- 131 g carbs
- 108 g sugar
A lot of people think that smoothies are a good food choice. This isn’t always the case, though, as Smoothie King’s “The Hulk” Strawberry Smoothie shows.
This drink has 800 calories in a small twenty-ounce dose. Three hundred milligrams of salt and a lot of sugar are also in it. If you order the big forty-ounce amount of this smoothie, it has 1,770 calories, which is almost all of an adult’s daily calorie needs.
10. The Cheesecake Factory: Louisiana Chicken Pasta
- 2,120 calories
- 125 g fat (65 g saturated fat)
- 4,030 mg sodium
- 16 g sugar
The Louisiana Pasta dish at the Cheesecake Factory has a crazy high number of calories, which isn’t really a surprise since it has fried chicken and thick pasta.
There are 2,120 calories and 4,030 mg of sodium in this main dish. Because of this, people who are watching their weight or salt intake should stay away from this food. It also has a lot of fat and 168 grams of carbs, which makes it even less healthy.
Conclusion
To sum up, some of the most popular restaurant foods are also some of the worst for you. Sugar, fat, salt, and calories are all found in large amounts.
This can cause weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues. Because of this, you should know what you’re taking and how it makes your body feel.
You should still eat your favorite foods, but you should do so in moderation and mix them with foods that are better for you. Being smart about what you eat will help you stay fit.