Chain restaurants charged with promoting “X-treme Eating”: Diet , Pounds , Fat-Loss Secrets?

“Now we see lasagna with meatballs on top; ice cream with cookies, brownies, and candy mixed in; ‘Ranchiladas,’ bacon cheeseburger pizzas, buffalo-chicken-stuffed quesadillas, and other hybrid horrible that are seemingly designed to promote obesity, heart disease and stroke.”

The time is ripe for chain restaurants to include nutritional information in their menus, says the Center for Science in the Public Interest, with joints like Ruby Tuesday and Cheesecake Factory serving up a whole day’s worth of calories in a single dish.

You might think eating at fast food chains like McDonalds and Burger King is bad for you, but at least they make nutritional information available to the public.

Table-service chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday, On the Border and The Cheesecake Factory make almost no nutritional information available on menus and are keeping customers in the dark.

Add to the fact that instead of making their products healthier, restaurant chains like these are competing to make portions bigger, badder, cheesier and better than ever.

“Burgers, pizzas, and quesadillas were never health foods to begin with, but many restaurants are transmogrifying these foods into ever-more harmful new creations, and then keeping you in the dark about what they contain,” said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). “Now we see lasagna with meatballs on top; ice cream with cookies, brownies, and candy mixed in; ‘Ranchiladas,’ bacon cheeseburger pizzas, buffalo-chicken-stuffed quesadillas, and other hybrid horrible that are seemingly designed to promote obesity, heart disease and stroke.”

For example:

-Ruby Tuesday’s “Colossal Burger” contains 1,940 calories and 141 grams of fat, equivalent to about five McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.

-Uno Chicago Grill’s “Pizza Skins,” which are meant to precede a meal of pizza, contain 2,050 calories, 48 grams of saturated fat, and a whopping 3,140 milligrams of sodium. “Even if you split it with two other people, it’s like eating dinner before your dinner even hits the table,” Jacobson said.

-Ruby Tuesday’s “Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta” sounds healthy, but it actually contains 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat, equivalent to two 12-ounce sirloin steaks, two buttered baked potatoes, and two Caesar salads.

-Cheesecake Factory’s “Chris’ Outrageous Chocolate Cake” has 1,380 calories, the same as two Quarter Pounders plus a large fries… for dessert.

CSPI calls the move by the New York City Board of Health to require many chain restaurants to list nutrition information ” a courageous move” and is calling upon other states to pass similar laws.

“When nutrition labeling took effect for packaged foods, it revolutionized the supermarket, and greatly expanded the number of healthy options for shoppers to choose from,” said US Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, sponsor of the MEAL Act in the House of Representatives. “Nutrition labeling at chain restaurants would help Americans exercise personal responsibility and encourage the restaurant industry to exercise corporate responsibility.”