There are good foods and there are bad foods. Then there are these foods, which Eat This, Not That! has deemed the absolute worst menu items you can order from 18 popular restaurants.
1. Applebee's: Hand-battered fish & chips. Coated in batter, deep-fried and served with an extra helping of fried potatoes, this dish is dripping with fat and is extremely calorific.
2. Cheesecake Factory: Pasta carbonara with chicken. Pasta and grilled chicken can both be healthy but not when they are drenched in cream sauce.
3. Chili’s: Crispy honey-chipotle & waffles. Chances are you are consuming an entire day's worth of calories, and a whole load of saturated fat, in this one dish. It cannot be good for your waistline and heart if consumed on a regular basis.
4. Denny’s: Cinnamon roll pancake breakfast. This meal sounds innocent enough but it is loaded with sugar.
5. IHOP: Appetizer sampler with ranch dressing. Take a few healthy snacks like mozzarella sticks, onions and chicken strips, coat them in batter then deep fry them and you will have a meal that can negatively impact your health if eaten often enough.
6. Red Lobster: Bar Harbor Lobster Bake. Seafood is touted as the healthier option when it comes to eating out but the nutritional benefits go out the window when you add linguini to the mix then smother it in creamy garlic-and-white-wine sauce.
7. TGI Fridays: Signature whiskey-glazed ribs, full-rack (with coleslaw & seasoned fries). This meal ticks all the (bad) boxes. Saturated fats, sugar, heaps of salt -- it's easy to see why it makes the list of worst foods you could eat from some of the most popular restaurants.
8. Olive Garden: Chicken & shrimp carbonara. Another dish that could be otherwise healthy if it were not for the creamy, fatty carbonara sauce and loads of added sugar.
9. Burger King: Bacon King sandwich. Two words- saturated fats. The bacon, cheese, mayonnaise and quarter-pound patties are laden with fats.
10. McDonald's: Double quarter pounder with cheese. Such a popular meal and yet it is so unhealthy. The issue is that it is supersized. Who needs those additional calories anyway?
11. Chick-fil-a: Chick-fil-a cobb salad with avocado-lime ranch dressing. You may be forgiven for mistaking this as a healthy meal. The problem lies in the salad dressing, which is crammed with sodium and fat.
12. Arby’s: Roast turkey ranch & bacon sandwich. Roast turkey is innocent enough but adding bacon and all the other extras add up. This sandwich is loaded in fat and sugar.
13. Taco Bell: XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito, beef. The salt in this meal already makes it an unhealthy choice but it does not end there. The burrito has the same amount of carbs as nearly six slices of bread.
14. Pizza Hut: Meat Lover's 14-inch large original pan pizza, 1 slice. One slice of this particular menu option contains the same amount of calories of an entire healthy meal. Add to this all the saturated fat and sodium found in this slice of pie and you can see why it is considered to be so unhealthy.
15. KFC: Chicken pot pie. This may be a comforting meal to eat on a cold, wintery day but there is little comfort in knowing just how much saturated fat, sodium and calories are found in the pastry and creamy sauce.
16. Wendy’s: Dave's Triple. Don't trust anything that has "triple" in its name. In this instance it means triple the saturated fat, sugar and sodium found in the beef patties, processed cheese and mayonnaise.
17. Jack in the Box. Bacon & Swiss Buttery Jack. What makes this meal so bad? The added bacon, garlic-herb butter, mayonnaise and cheese, which brings this meal to a whopping 887 calories and 59g fat
18. Boston Market: 1/2 rack St. Louis style BBQ ribs with fresh steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, zesty BBQ sauce, and cornbread. Kudos for the steamed vegetables but the rest of this meal is far less healthy. This meal alone contains nearly all the calories you should eat for an entire day. That's not even mentioning the high fat content.