Rabat – World Atlas recently released a list of the 10 least healthy fast food chains in the United States.
The ranking resource judged these waist-widening, heart-straining restaurants on their marketing of fattening fast-foods, hidden calories, sugar, salt, and fat that contribute to the obesity crisis that is rife in the country.
Ranked first is Wendy’s, with its square burgers and not quite icecream, not quite milkshake Frosty desserts. According to World atlas, with meals like Triple Baconators and Pretzel Bacon Pub Triples with fries and Frosties, meals can easily end up over 2000 calories and exceed most daily limits in one sitting.
Second rank was given to Sonic Drive-In. Popular for its unique retro theme and roller-skating carhops, they are also home to a 44 oz Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Master Shake that is larger than any other drink offered at a drive in, packing an almost litre and a half sugar and calorie punch.
The next on the list is Taco Bell, the most successful Mexican inspired fast-food chain.
Fourth rank was awarded to Dairy Queen, a chain known for its soft-serve ice creams and ice-cream inspired Blizzards. Even just a medium Oreo Blizzard contains 1080 calories and 44 grams of fat.
World renown fried chicken experts, KFC came fifth on the World Atlas rankings.
Ranked sixth was Quiznos, a popular toasted submarine sandwiches chain that shows food doesn’t have to be fried to be good. However, the addition of chips, cookies and drinks can add hundreds of extra, unnecessary calories to these already massive sandwiches.
Surprisingly, McDonalds only ranked seventh on World Atlas’s list despite populizing calorie dense fast-food around the world with an empire of more that 40,000 stores on every continent except Antarctica.
Smashburger came eighth with its deceptive image of a “better-burger.” They serve up uniquely flavorful and crispy burgers that have popularized a burger cooking technique of smashing the patty.
Little Caesars ranked ninth due to its ultra-cheap and ultra-caloric pizzas. High sodium, nutrient poor dinners are normalised by chains like this.
And the healthiest of the unhealthy was awarded to Chick-fil-A. Despite its high sodium and calorie dense fried chicken sandwiches and sugary drinks and milkshakes, Chick-fil-A has emerged as a model for good customer service and popular amongst young people.
Given that the recommended daily calories’ intake for women is 2000 calories and 2500 calories for men, some of the fast-food restaurants on this list easily exceed this in a single combination loaded meal.
But it cannot be ignored that despite their adverse health effects, fast-food chains are easily the cheapest and easiest take-out options in America.
