Where To Find Pittsburgh's Unhealthiest Foods

PITTSBURGH, PA - If you’re looking to sample an award-winning unhealthy meal, there are two places in Pittsburgh in which to do it - at the Cheesecake Factory’s Ross Park Mall and SouthSide Works locations.

The restaurant chain’s breakfast burrito has won the 2018 Xtreme Eating Award for the Worst Way to Start the Day from the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The nonprofit organization provides advice and advocacy toward healthier eating habits.

The Cheesecake Factory menu describes the breakfast burrito as a “warm tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, bacon, chicken chorizo, cheese, crispy potatoes, avocado, peppers and onions, over spicy ranchero sauce” that is served with sour cream, salsa, and black beans.”

What the menu doesn’t tell you, though, is that the breakfast burrito is the equivalent of eating seven McDonald’s sausage McMuffins. The burrito has more than a day’s worth of calories (2,730), two days’ worth of sodium (4,630 milligrams), and more than three days’ worth of saturated fat (73 grams).

“Long gone are the days when a big restaurant meal was an occasional splurge,” said CSPI senior nutritionist Lindsay Moyer. “Americans are eating out more than ever before. So when restaurant chains are serving up 2,000 calories or more on a single plate, it’s easy to see why people continue to struggle with overweight, obesity, and diet-related diseases.”

Other Xtreme Award winners that you can find in Pittsburgh:

• Worst cinematic snack: AMC’s 9-inch Bavarian legend soft pretzel (that’s a pound and a half of mostly white flour—more than you find in a loaf of bread. At 1,920 calories, it’s like eating six Auntie anne’s original soft pretzels.

• Worst mashup: Chili’s honey-chipotle crispers and waffles, which are crispers on top of Belgian waffles, topped with bacon, jalapeños, ancho-chile ranch. Served with fries & honey-chipotle sauce. At 2,510 calories, it’s like eating five Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts smothered in 30 McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets and five packets of barbecue sauce. Yum.

• Worst visceral effects: Uno Pizzeria & Grill deep dish buffalo chicken mac and cheese. At 2,320 calories, it’s like eating three orders of Olive Garden's cheese ravioli.

Photo via YouTube.

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