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Loading...11 Scary Fast Food Breakfasts
- a Care2 favorite by Melissa Breyer
- 612 comments
How would you like to meet your daily sodium and saturated fat allowance, as well as nearly half of your daily calorie needs, in one quick breakfast eaten on the road? It’s becoming progressively easy these day as food technicians, chefs and market researchers, holed away in corporate fast food “studios,” are busy developing monstrous new breakfast items. Trying to claim as much of the $57 billion fast food breakfast market as they can, the fast food giants are drumming up increasingly cheesy, steak-y, fried chicken-y breakfast dishes that tap into flavor combinations that have proven successful for lunch and dinner items. It’s no longer eggs and English muffins for fast food breakfast…breakfast burger anyone?
What’s most striking about some of these high-calorie items–aside from the unsustainable, industrial, often GMO and synthetic ingredients–is the very high sodium and saturated fat content. According to the USDA, the current recommendation for sodium consumption is less than 2,300 milligrams a day. For saturated fat, the maximum allowance is between 18 grams to 31 grams, depending on your caloric intake needs. (You can calculate your caloric need with this calculator from the Mayo Clinic.) Many of these breakfast items meet or exceed the daily sodium and fat allowances, and provide much more than one-third of your daily caloric needs.
1. Carl’s Jr Breakfast Burger
Yes, I’m afraid you read that right, “breakfast” and “burger” in the same menu item. How do you turn a regular burger into a breakfast burger? By adding not only an egg–but an egg, bacon, American cheese and hash brown nuggets too!
Calories: 780
Fat Calories: 370
Total Fat: 51 grams
Sat Fat: 15 grams
Sodium: 1460
Read more: Diet & Nutrition, Eating for Health, Food, Health, Life, Transportation
Melissa Breyer
Melissa Breyer is a writer and editor with a background in sustainable living, specializing in food, science and design. She is the co-author of True Food (National Geographic) and has edited and written for regional and international books and periodicals, including The New York Times Magazine. Melissa lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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Good to keep reading your comments. Thank you - much appreciated. Love, Pragito
I could watch all day. Thank you.
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so many wonders, so little time....
612 comments
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Hmmm....It is very not too surprising or shocking to come across this article.The typical western style breakfast is either too greasy or too salty, which is not too good for the health!
A hamburger for breakfast??????????!!!!!!!
yuck
no offense to anyone but these do not sound remotely healthy!
Who in his right mind orders these?
I enjoy alot of these. Yes they are high in Calories & bad for ya but they do taste good. I love McDonalds Susage & Biscuuit & of course their Gravy & Biscuits. All of us know it is bad for us, but we still enjoy eatting it from time to time. Of course most of the time, Im not usually out & about before they stop serving breakfast.
SOOOO SADDDD... dont do it
No thank you, thank you..
No thank you, thank you..
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