From CSPINET.org:
With two out of three adults—and one out of three children—overweight or obese, you’d think that restaurants would have some interest in keeping their patrons alive and dining out longer.
With mandatory calorie labeling on the horizon for chain restaurants, you’d think that restaurants would be dropping high-calorie items from their menus.
With close to 30 percent of young Americans too heavy to join the military, you’d think that restaurants would at least stop introducing new heavyweight items.
Nope. It’s business as usual in the restaurant industry. And that means it’s business as usual around here. Welcome to our 2010 Xtreme Eating Awards.
Here’s the calorie count for a typical meal at Five Guys:
Take the Five Guys Hamburger. Its 700 calories (with no toppings) makes a Big Mac (540 calories) or a Quarter Pounder (410 calories) look like kids food. And the McDonald’s numbers include the burgers’ fixin’s. A Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger has 920 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat (1½ days’ worth) without toppings. Think two Quarter Pounders.
And how many Five Guys patrons eat a burger without fries or a drink? Add 620 calories for the regular fries or 1,460 calories for a large. (The large is as big as three large orders of fries at McDonald’s.) Now your lunch of an unadorned Bacon Cheeseburger and large fries is up to 2,380 calories. Add 100 calories for every plop of mayo on your burger, another 300 for a large (32 oz.) Coke, and 300 more for every free refill.
Comments
17 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Just had a Five Guys single cheeseburger with jalapenos and split a small order of fries with my wife. Drank water. I’m not too concerned about the calories or the fat and it tasted a hell of a lot better than McDonald’s! It’s not about what you CAN eat at a restaurant–it’s all about what you DO eat.
We’ve had calorie counts on menus for quite some time here in Seattle and it HAS changed peoples’ eating habits. It’s a good idea.
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I love 5-Guys’ burgers – they are better than any other chain burgers. And, I do eat the 900+ calorie burger. However, I don’t eat their fries – that burger is enough.
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So that’s, what, about 1500 calories for a burger and fries?
TOTALLY worth it.
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hamburger is the cancer that is killing america
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Shut it commie.
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I thought cancer was the cancer that is killing America. Either that or high-fructose corn syrup.
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Actually, a Big Mac is a fine meal on it’s own. As long as you drink water and skip the fries.
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Comments for this post, especially the defenders of this restaurant, should be required to submit a front and side profile photo and a notarized copy of their BMI. Good times.
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Great. Now I’m hungry.
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I…I feel so ashamed. All these years… I can’t take the guilt! (Cracking under the pressure, Abbi is driven to eat more fast food.)
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Man… I’m hongrey! And as a redblooded midwestern american it is my god given right to go and eat half of a 900 calorie burger and 2 or 3 fries from my large order… and then throw the rest out.
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Food like what Five Guys is serving is killing more people in America than smoking. Swallow that.
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It’s not the food, it’s the people who don’t exercise and have no self control.
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And guns don’t kill people. Nor do cigarettes.
Nothin’s black and white but broadsheets and old movies.
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If I must die of something, it may as well be something delicious!
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Yeah, ground fat filled beef, bleached wheat bread and fried starchy carb filled pototoes is great for your heart, as long as you only eat a teaspoon of it once week. Dream on Americans.
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You’re an awfully vitriolic troll on this subject. When exactly did you stop enjoying life?
I’ve weighed 165 lbs for about 10 years now. I can take in 2800 calories a day just to maintain my current weight, as well as 76 grams of fat. I exercise as well, so those stock numbers are a bit low. So a 900 calorie, 30 grams-of-fat hamburger is basically 1/3rd of my daily calories and between 1/2 and 1/3rd of my daily fat intake. Almost like it’s… a meal.
I and many others can handle a burger. But thanks for your concern.
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